Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/404/898/
Timestamp: 2019-04-22 06:09:24+00:00

Document:
scribed libel judgments under such circumstances of innocent error.
moment of time.' Rosenblatt v. Baer, 383 U.S. 75, 90, 15 L. Ed.2d 597 (1966). Thus, after it was settled in Stromberg v. California, 283 U.S. 359 (1931), that the Fourteenth Amendment incorporated the First's freedoms of expression, it followed, in my view, that state libel laws were displaced by the same prohibition that had forbidden federal libel laws.
they have never yet been devised in America.' VI Writings of James Madison, 1790-1802, at 336 (Hunt. ed. 1906).
against the countervailing constitutional values of free expression, producing an actual malice test to be applied where public officials were criticized. Id., 283. I have continually reiterated my agreement with Justice Black, but, even if a balancing approach were appropriate, I also believe that the seven years since New York Times demonstrate that an improper balance was struck.
Moreover, the rationale for permitting even limited liability seems dubious. The actual malice standard, it is said, permits liability because 'calculated falsehoods' are not constitutionally protected. Garrison v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 64, 75 (1964). But as mentioned earlier even untrue remarks may have positive effects upon the quality of our re-examination process. Moreover, if the rough and tumble of debate is the best vehicle for producing approximations of factual truth or preferred opinion, then courts have no business making premature and interim evaluations of contested statements' merits.
terest.'7 The latter, more blurred focus, as Justices Harlan, Marshall, and Stewart recently observed, will further require this Court to poll itself with increasing regularity to determine what events are of sufficient general or public interest to deserve protection. Rosenbloom v. Metromedia, Inc., 403 U.S. 29, 62, 81 (1971). Thus in Time, Inc. v. Hill, 385 U.S. 374 (1967), an obscure family's captivity by escaped convicts propelled them into the 'public spotlight' and similarly in Rosenbloom v. Metromedia, Inc., 403 U.S. 29 (1971), a majority felt that an arrest of a magazine salesman was sufficiently 'public' to endow a radio station with greater protection for an erroneous newscast that his arrest had been for selling obscene material. It is evident that this ad hoc approach has backed the Court into the same subjective quagmire which has trapped the judiciary in the obscenity cases.
Operations Analysis, 249-256 (1961); Braff, Microeconomic Analysis, 259- 276 (1969); Dorfman, Prices and Markets, 128-136 (3d ed. 1967).
Footnote 1 Of the constitutionality of the Sedition Act of 1798, Mr. Justice Holmes said, 'I wholly disagree with the argument of the Government that the First Amendment left the common law as to seditious libel in force. History seems to me against the notion. I had conceived that the United States through many years had shown its repentance for the Sedition Act of 1798, by repaying fines that it imposed.' Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616, 630 (1919) (dissenting opinion).
Footnote 2 The issue presented in New York Times had also been considered by the Court in Schenectady Union Publishing Co. v. Sweeney, 316 U.S. 642 (1942) (equally divided vote).
Footnote 3 Rosenbloom v. Metromedia, Inc., 403 U.S. 29, 29 L. Ed.2d 296 (1971); Time, Inc. v. Pape, 401 U.S. 279d 45 (1971); Monitor Patriot Co. v. Roy, 401 U.S. 265, 28 L. Ed.2d 35 (1971); Greenbelt Cooperative Publishing Assn., Inc. v. Bresler, 398 U.S. 6 (1970); St. Amant v. Thompson, 390 U.S. 727 (1968); Beckley Newspapers Corp. v. Hanks, 389 U.S. 81 (1967); Associated Press v. Walker, 388 U.S. 130 (1967); Rosenblatt v. Baer, 383 U.S. 75 (1966); New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 255 (1964); see also Garrison v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 64 (1964), which relied on New York Times to invalidate a criminal libel statute, thereby precluding a jury retrial. That the actual malice test provides inadequate protection against whimsical juries has been pointed out by four Justices. See Linn v. United Plant Guard Workers, 383 U.S. 53, 70-71 (1966) (Justice Fortas); New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 293, 297-298 (1964) (Justices Black and Goldberg); Garrison v. Louisiana, 379 U.S. 64, 81 (1964) ( this writer).
Footnote 4 In addition to the citations in n. 3, see Ocala Star-Banner Co. v. Damron, 401 U.S. 295 (1971); Pickering v. Board of Educ., 391 U.S. 563 (1968); Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts, 388 U.S. 930 ( 1967); Time, Inc. v. Hill, 385 U.S. 374 (1967); Linn v. United Plant Guard Workers, 383 U.S. 53 (1966); Henry v. Collins, 380 U.S. 356 (1965).
Footnote 5 New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 255 (1964).
Footnote 6 Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts, 388 U.S. 930 (1967).
Footnote 7 Rosenbloom v. Metromedia, Inc., 403 U.S. 29, 43 ( 1971).
Footnote 8 It is evident that the transition from 'public official' to 'public figure' to 'events of public or general interest' has substantially broadened the instances in which the actual malice test is applicable. At the same time the actual malice test has been tightened by virtually eliminating reckless disregard as a component. The Court in Beckley Newspapers Corp. v. Hanks, 389 U.S. 81, 83-85, 19 L. Ed.2d 248 (1967), defined 'reckless disregard' to mean a 'high degree of awareness of probable falsity.' But even though the Court in the abstract has gone far toward eliminating libel, in practice, juries remain able to justify libel penalties under the nebulous 'actual malice' test.
Footnote 9 Presumably the credit reports published by the petitioner faciltate through the price system the improvement of human welfare at least as much as did the underlying disagreement in our most recent libel opinion, Rosenbloom v. Metromedia, Inc., 403 U.S. 29 (1971), arising out of a squabble over whether a vendor had sold obscene magazines.

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