Opinion ID: 570500
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Mandatory Retraction and Withdrawal of Prior Statements and Court Filings

Text: 71 We need not tarry very long over those portions of the district court's orders that sought to force Thompson to write letters of retraction to recipients of prior libelous statements and to withdraw libelous court filings. We have reviewed the available literature and reported decisions. Although the notion of compelled retraction occasionally has been advanced in the literature, 33 we have not found a single case in which such a remedy has been awarded. 72 Many states have enacted statutes that provide for the mitigation of compensatory or punitive damages in cases where a libel defendant, typically a newspaper, voluntarily retracts prior to trial. See Taylor v. Hearst, 107 Cal. 262, 40 P. 392 (1895); Leflar, supra note 13, at 436-41; Note, Developments in Defamation, supra note 13, at 940-42. No statutes to our knowledge, however, compel retraction. The reasons for the reluctance of state legislatures and courts to provide for mandatory retraction are apparent enough. As one commentator has stated: 73 None of the statutes provide for a compulsory retraction ...; they all leave it up to the defamer as to whether he will retract, even after formal demand from the defamed person. Retraction is a defense, not an award in the plaintiff's favor. 74 Compulsory retraction has obvious defects. The sincerity of a compelled retraction may be doubted, and by reason of that fact it may fall short of achieving real vindication for the defamed person. Third persons may feel that the defamer is merely saying what the law requires him to say without changing his true opinion. See Leflar, supra note 13 at 440. 34 75 This is not to suggest that policy reasons alone have discouraged legislatures and courts from invoking this remedy. Commentators have raised a serious question, related to the prior discussion of prospective injunctions but as yet substantially less debated, whether compelled retraction could withstand first amendment scrutiny. For example, Professor Chafee has written: 76 Since courts often base their refusal of injunctions in libel cases on the constitutional right of free speech, it is doubtful whether even a statute could make compulsory retraction valid.... [I]t may very well be a serious invasion of liberty of the press to compel a newspaper to publish as true what the editor believes to be false. And that is what a retraction is, if the editor persists in thinking his supposed libel correct. 77 Chafee, supra note 13, at 26. See also Hulme, supra note 13, at 387-88 (Although retraction may provide a quick and efficient remedy, the availability of this remedy depends entirely upon the defendant's cooperation; he cannot legally be compelled to issue a retraction.). 78 To our knowledge, the only two cases that even remotely come close to addressing mandatory retraction are Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo, 418 U.S. 241, 94 S.Ct. 2831, 41 L.Ed.2d 730 (1974), and Coughlin v. Westinghouse Broadcasting and Cable, Inc., 689 F.Supp. 483 (E.D.Pa.1988). In Miami Herald, the Supreme Court was called upon to assess the constitutionality of a Florida statute that provided a so-called right of reply to political candidates whose personal or official records were assailed by the media. Under the statute, newspapers were required to print, free of cost to the candidate, and subject to punishment if they refused, any reply that a candidate wished to make to the newspapers' charges. The Court declared the statute unconstitutional stating: 79 [T]he Court has expressed sensitivity as to whether a retraction or requirement constituted the compulsion exerted by government on a newspaper to print that which it would not otherwise print. The clear implication has been that no such compulsion to publish that which  'reason' tells them should not be published is unconstitutional. A responsible press is an undoubtedly desirable goal, but press responsibility is not mandated by the Constitution and like many other virtues cannot be legislated. 80 Miami Herald, 418 U.S. at 256, 94 S.Ct. at 2838-39 (citations omitted). 81 A right of reply differs from a mandatory retraction in that the former merely requires the defamer to provide space for a reply, whereas the latter requires the defamer to mouth or pen the words the plaintiff would have him say. As such, the unconstitutionality of compelled retraction would seem to follow a fortiori from the Court's declaration that Florida's right of reply statute is unconstitutional. One might draw such an inference from Miami Herald were it not for the short and curious concurrence authored by Justice Brennan: 82 I join the Court's opinion which, as I understand it, addresses only right of reply statutes and implies no view upon the constitutionality of retraction statutes affording plaintiffs able to prove defamatory falsehoods a statutory action to require publication of a retraction. See generally Note, Vindication of the Reputation of a Public Official, 80 Harv.L.Rev. 1730, 1739-1747 (1967). 83 Id. at 258-59, 94 S.Ct. at 2839-40 (Brennan, J. concurring). It is therefore difficult to know what to make of Miami Herald for purposes of our current inquiry. 84 Coughlin is also somewhat related to our inquiry. There, a policeman, who claimed that he had been defamed by a television station, wrote the management of the station demanding retraction, but was rebuffed. Apparently unable to prove that the statements had been made with sufficient recklessness to support a typical damages action for libel, the policeman sought damages invoking the novel theory that the station had breached a common-law duty under Pennsylvania law to retract what it later knew to be false. The television station opposed the claim, arguing that such a cause of action would amount to mandatory retraction. The station argued that the Pennsylvania Supreme Court would not create such a cause of action, because it would contravene principles inhering in the first amendment, which preclude giving directions to anybody as to what to publish. Coughlin, 689 F.Supp. at 489. 85 Judge Pollak reviewed the authorities speaking to the constitutionality of mandatory retraction, focusing on Miami Herald and the apparent conflict between the majority opinion and Justice Brennan's concurrence. He concluded, in dicta, that [m]y view of the matter is that a carefully crafted retraction statute could well be constitutional. Id. at 489. Judge Pollak denied the plaintiff's claim, however, concluding that even if mandatory retraction would survive constitutional scrutiny, such a cause of action properly should originate with the Pennsylvania legislature, not the courts. Id. at 490. We agree. 86 In sum, we find no support for the various retractions and withdrawals forced upon Thompson by the district court. Consequently, those orders of the district court compelling such retractions and withdrawals, and the associated contempt citations, must be reversed. 35