Court revives Sarah Palin’s libel lawsuit against The New York Times

A federal appeals court revived Sarah Palin’s libel case against The New York Times, citing errors by a lower court judge, particularly his decision to dismiss the lawsuit while a jury was deliberating. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan wrote that Judge Jed S. Rakoff’s decision in February 2022 to dismiss the lawsuit mid-deliberations improperly intruded on the jury’s work.

Quick Read

• A federal appeals court revived Sarah Palin’s libel lawsuit against The New York Times, citing significant errors by the lower court judge during the trial.
• The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan criticized Judge Jed S. Rakoff’s decision to dismiss the lawsuit while the jury was still deliberating, stating it improperly interfered with the jury’s role.
• The appeals court found that several trial errors, including the exclusion of evidence, an inaccurate jury instruction, and a flawed response to a jury question, tainted the jury’s decision against Palin.
• Despite these errors, the court declined Palin’s request to remove Judge Rakoff from the case, stating she provided no proof of bias.
• Palin’s lawsuit against The New York Times stemmed from a 2017 editorial that inaccurately linked her campaign rhetoric to a mass shooting, which she claimed damaged her reputation.
• Palin’s attorney, Shane Vogt, said she was pleased with the decision and looked forward to a fair retrial, emphasizing the importance of holding publishers accountable for misleading content.
• The New York Times expressed disappointment with the decision but remained confident that it would prevail in a retrial.
• The 2nd Circuit’s ruling overturned the previous jury verdict and Judge Rakoff’s dismissal, citing the impact of these errors on the trial’s outcome and the potential influence of the judge’s ruling on the jury.

The Associated Press has the story:

Court revives Sarah Palin’s libel lawsuit against The New York Times

Newslooks- NEW YORK (AP) —

A federal appeals court revived Sarah Palin’s libel case against The New York Times, citing errors by a lower court judge, particularly his decision to dismiss the lawsuit while a jury was deliberating. The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan wrote that Judge Jed S. Rakoff’s decision in February 2022 to dismiss the lawsuit mid-deliberations improperly intruded on the jury’s work.

It also found that the erroneous exclusion of evidence, an inaccurate jury instruction and an erroneous response to a question from the jury tainted the jury’s decision to rule against Palin. It declined, however, to grant Palin’s request to force Rakoff off the case on grounds he was biased against her. The 2nd Circuit said she had offered no proof.

The libel lawsuit by Palin, a onetime Republican vice presidential candidate and former governor of Alaska, centered on the newspaper’s 2017 editorial falsely linking her campaign rhetoric to a mass shooting, which Palin asserted damaged her reputation and career.

The Times acknowledged its editorial was inaccurate but said it quickly corrected errors it called an “honest mistake” that were never meant to harm Palin. Shane Vogt, a lawyer for Palin, said in an email that Palin was “very happy with today’s decision, which is a significant step forward in the process of holding publishers accountable for content that misleads readers and the public in general.”

“The truth deserves a level playing field, and Governor Palin looks forward to presenting her case to a jury that is ‘provided with relevant proffered evidence and properly instructed on the law,’” Vogt added, quoting in part from the 2nd Circuit ruling. Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesperson for the Times, said the decision was disappointing. “We’re confident we will prevail in a retrial,” he said in an email.

The 2nd Circuit, in a ruling written by Judge John M. Walker Jr., reversed the jury verdict, along with Rakoff’s decision to dismiss the lawsuit while jurors were deliberating. Despite his ruling, Rakoff let jurors finish deliberating and render their verdict, which went against Palin. The appeals court noted that Rakoff’s ruling made credibility determinations, weighed evidence, and ignored facts or inferences that a reasonable juror could plausibly find supported Palin’s case.

It also described how “push notifications” that reached the cellphones of jurors “came as an unfortunate surprise to the district judge.” The 2nd Circuit said it was not enough that the judge’s law clerk was assured by jurors that Rakoff’s ruling had not affected their deliberations.

“Given a judge’s special position of influence with a jury, we think a jury’s verdict reached with the knowledge of the judge’s already-announced disposition of the case will rarely be untainted, no matter what the jurors say upon subsequent inquiry,” the appeals court said.

In its ruling Wednesday, the 2nd Circuit said it was granting a new trial because of various trial errors and because Rakoff’s mid-deliberations ruling against Palin, which might have reached jurors through alerts delivered to cell phones, “impugn the reliability of that verdict.”

“The jury is sacrosanct in our legal system, and we have a duty to protect its constitutional role, both by ensuring that the jury’s role is not usurped by judges and by making certain that juries are provided with relevant proffered evidence and properly instructed on the law,” the appeals court said.

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