GOVT 280-001New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254Part, Lecture notes of Accounting

Download GOVT 280-001New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254Part and more Lecture notes Accounting in PDF only on Docsity! GOVT 280-001 New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254 Parties: New York Times Company, Petitioner, v. L. B. Sullivan, Respondent. Counsel: Herbert Wechsler for petitioner. M. Roland Nachman, Jr. for respondent. Judges: Warren, Black, Douglas, Clark, Harlan, Brennan, Stewart, White, and Goldberg. Procedural History: A newspaper, the petitioner, sought a review of a decision by the Supreme Court of Alabama upholding a judgement awarding a public official, the respondent, damages in a civil libel action. Summary of Facts: Respondent, an elected official in Montgomery, Alabama, brought suit in a state court alleging that he had be libeled by an advertisement in corporate petitioner’s newspaper, the text of which appeared over the names of the four individual petitioners and many others. The advertisement included statements, some of which were false, about police action allegedly directed against students who participated in a civil rights demonstration and against a leader of the civil rights movement; the respondent claimed the statements referred to him because his duties included supervision of the police department. The trial judge instructed the jury that such statements were “libelous per se,” legal injury being implied without proof of actual damages. Issues: Whether or not a judgement awarding the respondent damages in a civil libel action be reversed. Holding: The court held that the petitioner’s constitutional guarantees required a rule that prohibited a public official from recovering damages for a defamatory falsehood relating to the public official’s official conduct unless the official proved that the statement was made with malice.