The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled Wednesday that a district court improperly dismissed a defamation lawsuit filed by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. The New York TimesThis allows for the case to be retried.
As Breitbart News reported in February 2022, U.S. Judge Jed S. Rakoff, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, dismissed the case even as the jury was still deliberating its verdict.
Palin filed a lawsuit Times Judge Rakoff initially dismissed the case over a 2017 editorial in which she said she inspired the 2011 Tucson, Arizona, mass shooting. Resurrected Federal appeals court ruling: After presenting arguments in an initial filing, Judge Rakoff determined that Palin had enough evidence to take the case to trial, which is unusual in defamation lawsuits brought by public figures against the media, because the standard for proving “actual malice” is usually too high for plaintiffs to meet.
Additionally, Rakoff sent the case to a jury after closing arguments last week, but, as NPR's David Folkenflik reported, on Monday he had second thoughts and said Palin didn't meet the standard of “actual malice.” Timescorrection and contrition from then editorial editor James Bennett.
The jury ruled against Palin. TimesBut that was after he learned of Rakoff's decision to dismiss the lawsuit.
Three Judges panel A panel of judges on the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, including two appointees by President George W. Bush and one by President Donald Trump, found Wednesday that Judge Rakoff acted improperly and ordered a new trial.
from decision:
We first revived the case in August 2019 after the district court (Judge Rakoff) initially dismissed the case under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). Palin's claims were then tried before a jury, but while the jury was deliberating, the district court again dismissed the case, this time under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50. We conclude that the district court's Rule 50 decision improperly violated jury jurisdiction by ignoring credibility determinations, consideration of the evidence, and facts and inferences that a reasonable juror could have found to support Palin's claims.
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Juries are sacrosanct in our legal system, and we have a duty to protect their constitutional role by ensuring that their role is not usurped by the judge and by ensuring that jurors are provided with proper evidence and are properly instructed on the law.
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[W]e vacating both the district court's Rule 50 judgment and the jury verdict, and remanding the case back to the district court for further proceedings, including a new trial, consistent with this opinion.
ABC News Citation of Times's response: “We are disappointed with this verdict. We are confident we will prevail in the retrial.”
Joel B. Pollack is executive editor of Breitbart News. Breitbart News Sunday The show airs Sunday nights from 7 to 10 p.m. (4 to 7 p.m. ET) on SiriusXM Patriot. He is the author of “Agenda: What Trump Should Do in His First 100 Days,” which is available for preorder on Amazon. He also wrote,Trumpian virtue: The lessons and legacy of Donald Trump's presidency” is available on Audible. He is the 2018 recipient of the Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter. Joel Pollack.
