actual-malice
32 cases — ← All topics
| Case | Title | Lower Court | Docketed | Status | Flags | Tags | Question Presented |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25-770 | Alan M. Dershowitz v. Cable News Network, Inc. | Eleventh Circuit | 2025-12-31 | Pending | Response Waived | actual-malice circuit-split defamation first-amendment media-liability summary-judgment | As the District Court explained, "Of course, Dershowitz said nothing of the kind[.]" App. 71a. The court was referring to how CNN defamed Professor Al… |
| 24-1320 | Centerline Logistics Corporation, et al. v. Inlandboatmen’s Union of the Pacific, et al. | California | 2025-06-27 | Denied | Response Waived | actual-malice anti-SLAPP defamation due-process first-amendment jury-trial | Whether the Supreme Court should overturn the actual malice standard from New York Times v. Sullivan and whether anti-SLAPP statutes violate the Seven… |
| 24-1243 | Tri-Corp Housing, Inc. v. Robert Bauman | Wisconsin | 2025-06-05 | Denied | Response Waived | actual-malice defamation jury-trial legal-standard public-figure wisconsin-supreme-court | When is a claimant an 'involuntary public figure' within the meaning of Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., and must the question of whether a party claiming… |
| 24-7287 | Anthony Michael Branch v. Aidan T. Kearney, et al. | Massachusetts | 2025-05-27 | Denied | IFP | actual-malice defamation media-publications public-figure summary-judgment | Whether a private individual who becomes the subject of defamatory online publications may be designated a 'limited-purpose public figure' based solel… |
| 24-829 | Steve Wynn v. The Associated Press, et al. | Nevada | 2025-02-04 | Denied | Amici (1)Response Waived | actual-malice anti-SLAPP defamation first-amendment public-figure seventh-amendment | Whether the Supreme Court should overturn the actual-malice standard for public figure defamation plaintiffs and whether applying this standard in ant… |
| 24A508 | Steve Wynn v. The Associated Press, et al. | Nevada | 2024-11-22 | Presumed Complete | actual-malice anti-slapp defamation first-amendment jury-trial new-york-times-v-sullivan | Whether the First Amendment's actual malice standard under New York Times v. Sullivan improperly limits a public figure's right to a civil jury trial … | |
| 24-543 | Nili N. Alai v. Law Offices of Mark B. Plummer, P.C., et al. | California | 2024-11-14 | Denied | actual-malice defamation due-process first-amendment public-figure res-judicata | Whether a state court's application of res judicata to deem an appeal moot based on another defendant's appeal violates the Due Process Clause of the … | |
| 24-5917 | Myrna De Jesus v. Dignity Health Corporation | Ninth Circuit | 2024-11-05 | Denied | Relisted (2)IFP | actual-malice defamation private-citizen publication qualified-immunity slander-per-se | Whether the concepts of actual malice and excessive publication are required elements of defamation slander per se for a private citizen to prove that… |
| 23-1303 | Craig Malin v. Lee Enterprises, Inc., et al. | Iowa | 2024-06-13 | Denied | actual-malice civil-rights defamation due-process first-amendment free-speech jury-trial publication-law summary-judgment | Does grant of summary judgment to Respondent Lee Enterprises conflict with requirements for a jury trial per Anderson v. Liberty Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S.… | |
| 23-747 | Marylin Pierre v. Attorney Grievance Commission of Maryland | Maryland | 2024-01-10 | Denied | Amici (1)Response Waived | actual-malice civil-rights disciplinary-proceedings due-process first-amendment free-speech judicial-discipline legal-ethics new-york-times-v-sullivan professional-conduct rules-of-professional-conduct | Does the actual malice test of New York Times v. Sullivan protect lawyers' First Amendment rights in disciplinary proceedings? |
| 23A386 | Marylin Pierre, et al. v. Attorney Grievance Commission of Maryland | Maryland | 2023-10-31 | Presumed Complete | actual-malice attorney-discipline first-amendment free-speech judicial-criticism new-york-times-v-sullivan | Whether the First Amendment protects lawyers from disciplinary sanctions for criticizing judges under the actual malice standard established in New Yo… | |
| 22-1125 | Don Blankenship v. NBCUniversal, LLC, et al. | Fourth Circuit | 2023-05-18 | Denied | Amici (1)Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (3) | actual-malice constitutional defamation first-amendment media-liability public-figure summary-judgment | Whether the actual malice standard imposed on public figure plaintiffs in defamation cases should be replaced |
| 22-906 | Alan Grayson v. No Labels, Inc., et al. | Eleventh Circuit | 2023-03-17 | Denied | Amici (3)Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (2) | actual-malice appellate-review circuit-split civil-procedure defamation first-amendment new-york-times-v-sullivan public-figure public-figures | should-the-actual-malice-standard-be-revisited |
| 22-591 | Donald V. Watkins, et al. v. Matrix, LLC, et al. | Alabama | 2022-12-27 | Denied | Response Waived | actual-malice civil-rights defamation due-process first-amendment free-speech presumed-damages public-figure summary-judgment | Whether the Alabama Courts' grant and affirmance of a summary judgment for Respondents in a state law defamation case conflicts with this Court's deci… |
| 22-137 | BYD Company Ltd. v. Alliance for American Manufacturing, et al. | District of Columbia | 2022-08-11 | Denied | Response Waived | actual-malice civil-rights defamation discovery first-amendment free-speech pleading-standard pleading-standards public-figure reckless-disregard | Whether Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly and Ashcroft v. Iqbal sub silentio overturned the balance struck in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan and its prog… |
| 22-29 | Richelle D. Wallace v. City of Hampton, Virginia, et al | Virginia | 2022-07-11 | Denied | actual-malice constitutional-interpretation curtis-publishing-co-v-butts defamation first-amendment free-speech libel-law new-york-times-v-sullivan public-figure | Whether the actual-malice standard should be reconsidered for public-figure defamation cases | |
| 21-1580 | MyPillow, Inc. v. US Dominion, Inc., et al. | District of Columbia | 2022-06-22 | Denied | actual-malice collateral-order-doctrine defamation first-amendment free-speech interlocutory-appeal jurisdictional-appeal new-york-times-standard | Whether a critic of official conduct may immediately appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1291 a district court's refusal to dismiss under New York Times Co. v. S… | |
| 21-1518 | BYD Company Ltd. v. Vice Media LLC | Second Circuit | 2022-06-02 | Denied | actual-malice defamation discovery-rights first-amendment iqbal pleading-standard public-figure twombly | Whether Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly and Ashcroft v. Iqbal sub silentio overturned the balance struck in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan and its prog… | |
| 21-7042 | Craig Nelsen v. Southern Poverty Law Center | Eighth Circuit | 2022-02-02 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | actual-malice constitutional-protection defamation diversity-jurisdiction first-amendment free-speech public-figure summary-judgment | Whether the US Court for the 8th Circuit wrongly allowed the District Court's improper statement of a Missouri Supreme Court ruling |
| 21-1030 | Peter Brimelow v. The New York Times Company | Second Circuit | 2022-01-21 | Denied | Response Waived | actual-malice civil-rights defamation due-process first-amendment free-speech government-policy media-entity media-liability new-york-times-standard race-intelligence-crime | Whether the Sullivan Malice rule should be abandoned |
| 21-839 | Thomas H. Oehmke v. Patrick Andrew Guinan | Michigan | 2021-12-07 | Denied | Response Waived | actual-malice civil-rights constitutional-protection defamation first-amendment free-speech malicious-reporting qualified-privilege | Qualified Privilege for FBI Crime Tips |
| 21-802 | Coral Ridge Ministries Media, Inc., dba D. James Kennedy Ministries v. Southern Poverty Law Center | Eleventh Circuit | 2021-11-30 | Denied | Amici (4)Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (14) | actual-malice common-law curtis-publishing-co-v-butts defamation first-amendment free-speech public-figure reputational-harm sullivan | Whether the Court should reconsider the 'actual-malice' standard in defamation cases involving public figures |
| 21-394 | D. F. Pace v. Emily Baker-White, et al. | Third Circuit | 2021-09-13 | Denied | Response Waived | actual-malice civil-rights defamation due-process first-amendment free-speech internet-speech new-york-times-sullivan standing technological-advances | Whether the Court should revisit the 'actual malice' doctrine of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan |
| 21-343 | Michelle J. Smith v. Nicholas French, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Martin D. French, Deceased | Massachusetts | 2021-09-02 | Denied | Response Waived | actual-malice child-athletes defamation first-amendment fourteenth-amendment libel preemption public-figure sports-governance | Whether the standard of proof in a State Defamation/Libel case arising from a parental complaint to a National Governing Body of Sport, should automat… |
| 21-121 | Christiana Tah, et al. v. Global Witness Publishing, Inc., et al. | District of Columbia | 2021-07-28 | Denied | Amici (1) | actual-malice civil-rights defamation first-amendment free-speech inference-of-intent pleading-standard pleading-standards public-figure public-plaintiff | Whether a complaint by a public plaintiff alleging defamation sufficiently pleads actual-malice, in-the-absence-of-direct-evidence, by-presenting-deta… |
| 20-1637 | Janice Dickinson v. Ryan Seacrest Productions, Inc., et al. | Ninth Circuit | 2021-05-25 | Denied | Response Waived | actual-malice defamation first-amendment lanham-act new-york-times-v-sullivan public-figure rogers-test rogers-v-grimaldi | Whether a defendant who willfully creates a false narrative about a public figure that is marketed to the public as a true story, for the intentional … |
| 20-1588 | Michael Konowicz, aka Michael Phillips, et al. v. Jonathan P. Carr, et al. | Third Circuit | 2021-05-17 | Denied | actual-malice commercial-speech constitutional-interpretation defamation first-amendment fourteenth-amendment free-speech lanham-act | Whether the Court should revisit the 'actual malice' doctrine of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan | |
| 20-1063 | Shkelzën Berisha v. Guy Lawson, et al. | Eleventh Circuit | 2021-02-04 | Denied | Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (4) | actual-malice constitutional-law curtis-publishing-co-v-butts defamation first-amendment libel libel-law mckee-v-cosby public-figure | Whether the Court should overrule the 'actual malice' requirement for public figure defamation plaintiffs |
| 20-693 | Mikhail Fridman, et al. v. Orbis Business Intelligence Limited, et al. | District of Columbia | 2020-11-19 | Denied | Response Waived | actual-malice anti-slapp anti-slapp-act defamation due-process herbert-v-lando public-figure | Whether the application of the D.C. Anti-SLAPP Act to dismiss a public figure's defamation claim violates due-process, actual-malice, herbert-v-lando |
| 19-1247 | Judson A. Lovingood v. Discovery Communications, Inc., et al. | Eleventh Circuit | 2020-04-27 | Denied | Response Waived | actual-malice defamation entertainment entertainment-media first-amendment free-speech public-official sworn-testimony | Whether the publication of totally false and fabricated testimony of a public official testifying under oath to produce an entertaining, dramatic effe… |
| 18-8979 | Lisa Jacobs v. Lorraine MacDonald, et vir | New Hampshire | 2019-04-24 | Denied | IFP | actual-malice constitutional-rights defamation defamation-damages first-amendment negligence-per-se presumptive-damages punitive-damages | Whether enhanced compensatory damages in connection with an action for negligence per se requires proof of 'actual malice' consistent with St. Amant v… |
| 18-584 | Angela Engle Horne v. WTVR, LLC, dba CBS6 | Fourth Circuit | 2018-11-05 | Denied | Response Waived | actual-malice civil-rights constitutional-standard defamation first-amendment free-speech media-law public-figure public-official sullivan | Whether this Court should overrule New York Times v. Sullivan |