POS2041 Lecture Notes - Lecture 31: Perjury, Actual Malice, Punitive Damages
17 Aug 2020
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Document Summary
During the civil rights movement of the 1960s, the new york times published an ad for contributing donations to defend martin luther king, jr. , on perjury charges. Sullivan, felt that the criticism of his subordinates reflected on him, even though he was not mentioned in the ad. Sullivan sent a written request to the times to publicly retract the information, as required for a public figure to seek punitive damages in a libel action under alabama law. When the times refused and claimed they were puzzled by the request, sullivan filed a libel. A jury in state court awarded him ,000 in damages. The state supreme court affirmed and the action against the times and a group of african american ministers mentioned in the ad. Whether alabama"s libel law unconstitutionally infringed on the first amendment"s freedom of speech and freedom of press protections: conclusion. In a unanimous opinion authored by justice brennan, the court ruled for the times .
