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 You Be the Judge > New York Times v. Sullivan
Case Facts On March 29, 1960, the New York Times printed a full-page advertisement alleging that the recent arrest of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Alabama was intended to hamper the civil rights struggle. The advertisement did not mention anyone by name but contained several factual errors. L.B. Sullivan, the police commissioner of Montgomery, Alabama, sued the New York Times for libel. The New York Times argued that the libel action violated its First Amendment right to freedom of the press and restricted its ability to criticize the actions of government officials. Sullivan responded that the ad defamed him personally. Although his name was not used, the advertisement implied that he was involved, and the false statements created a bad impression of him. What happened? The Supreme Court voted unanimously that the First Amendment protects publication of all statements about public officials—even false ones—except when the press knew beforehand that the statements were false. Because the press is considered a gatekeeper that sifts through facts and opinion, it is up to the press to separate facts from false statements. In this case, the speech that was in question was an advertisement purchased by an outside party and not something produced by professional journalists at the New York Times. If a journalist had been responsible for the contents of the advertisement, then the burden of responsibility would be different. Justice William Brennan, Jr. wrote this in the majority opinion: “…debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and…may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials….Authoritative interpretations of the First Amendment guarantees have consistently refused to recognize an exception for any test of truth….erroneous statement is inevitable in free debate, and…it must be protected if the freedoms of expression are to have the ‘breathing space’ that they ‘need…to survive….’ …a state cannot, under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, award damages to a public official for defamatory falsehood relating to his official conduct unless he proves ‘actual malice’—that the statement was made with knowledge of its falsity or with reckless disregard of whether it was true or false.” The justices were unanimous in their decision so there was no minority opinion. How the Supreme Court Justices voted Chief Justice Earl Warren Yes Potter Stewart Yes Bryon R. White Yes Arthur Goldberg Yes Tom C. Clark Yes William J. Brennan, Jr. Yes William O. Douglas Yes John Marshall Harlan Yes Hugo L. Black Yes What does this mean for us today? New York Times v. Sullivan is one of the major cases used in deciding libel cases today. The decision has helped ensure that the press can reasonably hold public officials accountable for their actions while shielding themselves from needless litigation. The court’s decision set some general lines between false statements and criticism of public figures versus those made against private citizens. It also created a burden of proof in libel cases known as “actual malice.” A public official has to prove that the press acted with “actual malice” in an attempt to harm the official, when it printed the false information. The New York Times v. Sullivan decision and other freedom of press cases will likely be debated more in the future because of the Internet. The Internet has allowed a forum for everyone to publish information, so defining who a journalist is has become more difficult. The same holds true for defining a public figure. Is a blogger who doesn’t work for a mainstream news organization a journalist? Is a private citizen who suddenly becomes famous on YouTube now a public figure and subject to the scrutiny of the media? These and many other First Amendment press and free speech questions will continue to be debated. Back to You Be the Judge |
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