public-figure
29 cases — ← All topics
| Case | Title | Lower Court | Docketed | Status | Flags | Tags | Question Presented |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25-268 | Alex Emric Jones, et al. v. Erica Lafferty, et al. | Connecticut | 2025-09-09 | Denied | Response Waived | administrative-sanction constitutional-review defamation first-amendment media-liability public-figure | This case presents multiple constitutional questions of first impression involving the use of a punitive administrative Death Penalty Sanction for sma… |
| 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… |
| 24-1194 | John Doe v. Second Judicial District Court of Nevada, Washoe County, et al. | Nevada | 2025-05-22 | Denied | Response Waived | anonymous-investigation elected-officials first-amendment litigation public-figure speech-preparatory | Are speech preparatory investigations expressive and subject to First Amendment protection? |
| 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… |
| 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 … | |
| 23-1328 | Yuval Golan v. Daily News, L.P., et al. | New York | 2024-06-20 | Denied | Response Waived | anti-slapp constitutional-rights defamation first-amendment jury-trial public-figure public-figures seventh-amendment | Is the New York anti-SLAPP statute unconstitutional? |
| 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 |
| 22-704 | Katherine K. Vidal, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director, United States Patent and Trademark Office v. Steve Elster | Federal Circuit | 2023-01-27 | Judgment Issued | Amici (8)Relisted (2) | first-amendment free-speech government-official public-figure registration section-1052c trademark trademark-registration | Whether the refusal to register a mark under Section 1052(c) violates the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment when the mark contains criticism o… |
| 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 | |
| 21-1518 | 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… | |
| 21-1369 | Carter Page v. Oath Inc. | Delaware | 2022-04-21 | Denied | Amici (1)Response Waived | burden-of-proof defamation first-amendment passive-voice public-figure qualified-language truth-standard | Does couching factual claims in qualified language and in the passive voice suffice to render them 'true or substantially true' under the First Amendm… |
| 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 |
| 21-802 | 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 |
| 21-6219 | Martin Lindstedt, et al. v. Bryan Anthony Reo | Ohio | 2021-11-08 | Denied | IFP | civil-lawfare civil-procedure defamation false-light jurisdiction monopoly-license public-figure punitive-damages statutory-limitations white-supremacy | Question not identified |
| 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 … |
| 20-1063 | 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 |
| 19-6442 | William Conrad Yeager, II v. National Public Radio, et al. | Tenth Circuit | 2019-10-29 | Denied | Response WaivedRelisted (2)IFP | civil-rights defamation defamation-law first-amendment free-speech libel libel-standards media-access newsworthiness public-controversy public-figure public-figure-doctrine public-interest | Whether the petitioner, an unknown musician and independent filmmaker, who fails to meet the requirements for a limited purpose public figure under Ge… |
| 19-63 | Murphy J. Painter v. Shane Evans | Louisiana | 2019-07-11 | Denied | Response Waived | civil-rights constitutional-protection defamation first-amendment government-speech new-york-times-v-sullivan public-figure | Does the First Amendment apply to government speech such that defamatory government speech is protected free speech? |
| 18-1477 | Competitive Enterprise Institute, et al. v. Michael E. Mann | District of Columbia | 2019-05-28 | Denied | Amici (2)Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (8) | constitutional-law defamation first-amendment free-speech opinion provably-false public-concern public-figure question-of-law-or-fact subjective-commentary | Whether the First Amendment permits defamation liability for subjective commentary on true facts concerning a matter of public concern |
| 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 |
| 18-453 | Olivia de Havilland v. FX Networks, LLC, et al. | California | 2018-10-11 | Denied | artistic-license civil-rights defamation docudrama false-statements first-amendment free-speech pleading-stage public-figure right-of-publicity | Are reckless or knowing false statements about a living public figure, published in docudrama format, entitled to absolute First Amendment protection … | |
| 18-70 | William H. Cosby, Jr. v. Janice Dickinson | California | 2018-07-12 | Denied | attorney-client attorney-speech attorney-statements california-court-of-appeal client-representation constitutional-protection defamation first-amendment first-amendment-protection free-speech milkovich public-accusations public-figure third-circuit | Whether an attorney's statement denying wrongdoing on behalf of a client who has been publicly accused of serious misconduct enjoys constitutional pro… |