Michael Konowicz, aka Michael Phillips, et al. v. Jonathan P. Carr, et al.
FirstAmendment Trademark
Whether the Court should revisit the 'actual malice' doctrine of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan
QUESTIONS PRESENTED 1. Whether the Court should revisit the fifty-year old “actual malice” doctrine of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan and its progeny to determine if the “original meaning” of the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the United States Constitution is consistent with Constitutionalizing the common law tort of defamation, and to determine whether the same level of “breathing space” deemed necessary in 1964 continues to be necessary for Twenty-First Century speech. 2. Whether this Court should step in and establish a test for what constitutes “commercial speech” under the Lanham Act, where the Courts of Appeal have applied different standards to define the term.