Tonight in Your Rights: Sarah Palin, Voice of America, and due process
All Rise News highlights several victories for your rights and freedoms out of federal courts today
Federal judges and a federal jury delivered decisive victories for freedom of the press and due process of law on Tuesday.
Inside a Manhattan court, a jury quickly ruled against former Gov. Sarah Palin in a retrial of her defamation lawsuit, finding the New York Times not liable for a second time. A judge on the same floor of that courthouse extended his temporary restraining order (TRO) blocking the Trump administration from whisking certain immigrants out of the country without notice or a hearing.
Another judge in Colorado issued a similar TRO in an Alien Enemies Act case, with both jurists scorching Donald Trump’s legal basis for invoking the wartime statute.
In Washington, D.C., a judge blocked the administration from silencing and dismantling Voice of America, and a nearby judge in Maryland excoriated the Trump administration’s “specious” objections to evidence production in the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case.
All Rise News unpacks all of these rulings in “Tonight in Your Rights,” an occasional roundup reserved for particularly active news days like these.
Two Wins for Press Freedom
Palin racked up another defeat in her crusade against the Times over a quickly corrected error in a 2017 editorial titled “America’s Lethal Politics,” which mistakenly linked an ad by Palin’s political action committee to Jared Lee Loughner’s shooting spree from 2011.
Within hours, the Times clarified that no such link existed — and has been embroiled in litigation ever since.
Media law expert Mitchell Epner called Palin’s defeat inevitable under Times v. Sullivan, the watershed Supreme Court precedent protecting a free press from liability over simple errors.
“There was little reason to doubt that Sarah Palin would lose the case under the Times v. Sullivan ‘actual malice’ test,” Epner told All Rise News. “When she started this case Ms. Palin (and her first set of lawyers) touted the case as a vehicle to ask the Supreme Court to overturn the ‘actual malice’ test. We will see if she (and her current lawyers) has the appetite for a third trip to the Second Circuit.”
Palin probably doesn’t have a strong appeal because New York separately has strong press freedom laws that apply the actual malice standard to public and private figures in cases dealing with issues of public interest, Epner notes.
Committee to Protect Journalists’ (CPJ) U.S., Canada, and Caribbean program coordinator Katherine Jacobson also viewed any effort to disturb Sullivan as a longshot, even if it’s no time for “complacency.”
The Supreme Court recently declined an invitation to hear a case challenging Sullivan brought by GOP megadonor Steve Wynn.
“I think both the initial case and the retrial uphold the principles outlined in New York Times v. Sullivan and it should serve as a comfort in a way to know that both the federal judge and the federal jury have decided to uphold those principles,” Jacobson says.
Voice of America must not be silenced and dismantled, a judge appointed by Ronald Reagan ruled today.
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth minced no words in his opinion: “They took immediate and drastic action to slash [VoA supervisor U.S. Agency for Global Media], without considering its statutorily or constitutionally required functions as required by the plain language of the EO [executive order], and without regard to the harm inflicted on employees, contractors, journalists, and media consumers around the world. It is hard to fathom a more straightforward display of arbitrary and capricious actions than the Defendants’ actions here.”
CPJ’s Jacobson, again: "We are glad to see that a judge ruled in favor of the United States Agency for Global Media and its affiliates, including Voice of America. These media organizations provide essential coverage around the world, offering another perspective to millions living in authoritarian countries."
Supporting civil society:
Groups like CPJ and Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press provide advocacy and legal support for journalists.
Judge rejects “secret court” end-run of due process
A judge in New York held little back in denouncing the Trump administration’s effort to circumvent the courts by deploying the Alien Enemies Act against certain Venezuelan immigrants.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein compared it to a “secret court” or an “Inquisition like Medieval times.”
We’ll save you the recap: Read our coverage of that ruling and a similar one from Colorado here.
Over in the District of Maryland, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis skewered the Trump administration’s “specious” attempts to dodge discovery of evidence in the Abrego Garcia case. The Trump administration “mischaracterized” the Supreme Court’s order and made “vague and unsubstantiated assertions of privilege,” the judge said.
From the ruling: “Defendants have known, at least since last week, that this Court requires specific legal and factual showings to support any claim of privilege. Yet they have continued to rely on boilerplate assertions. That ends now.”
Trump’s Justice Department must “answer and respond to all outstanding discovery requests and supplement its invocation of privilege” by 6 p.m. tomorrow on Wednesday, she added.
I wouldn't be surprised if Sarah Palin appealled. I hate to be cynical but I bet she will if she can get funding.