Opinion ID: 848785
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Application of the McDonald Principle

Text: While I concur in the majority opinion because of the clear direction provided by McDonald, in addition to my original-intent analysis, I believe there are meritorious arguments for declining to extend the private-figure and public-figure defamation distinction to cases involving the right to petition. Further, the flaw of the McDonald principle that the First Amendment clauses are to be treated without distinction in defamation cases is exposed, in my opinion, by the extension of the private-figure and public-figure dichotomy to petition-right casesparticularly the present case. The rationale for the private-figure and public-figure dichotomy announced in Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 94 S.Ct. 2997, 41 L.Ed.2d 789 (1974), seems potentially misplaced in petition settings where the alleged defamation damages derive from the resulting actions of the government. Gertz reasoned that private individuals are more vulnerable to defamation than public figures because public figures have significantly greater access to the media and can use the media to counteract false statements. Gertz, supra at 344, 94 S.Ct. 2997. [11] It is arguable that the Gertz access to the media rationale in the free speech and free press contexts is ill-fitted to the right to petition context, particularly where a plaintiff's damages are a product of the adverse actions of government, albeit induced by a third party. Unlike falsehoods disseminated by or in the media, access to city council meetings is not similarly limited. City council meetings are generally not run so that only public figures can be heard and private figures ignored. A central purpose of a public meeting of the city council is to allow citizenry input and to maximize the exposure of the government's decision-making in an open meeting. In fact, the access to respond to defamatory statements in a petition context is evident in the present case, where plaintiff was given the opportunity at the city council meeting to answer defendant's assertions. Further, the Petition Clause itself protected plaintiff's right to deliver a written petition to the city council in order to answer the defamatory statements made by defendant. For these reasons, it is questionable whether the rationale for the private-figure and public-figure dichotomy announced in Gertz, and applied in defamation actions involving freedom of speech or freedom of the press, provides a solid foundation for the private-figure and public-figure standard in the right to petition context. This extension is particularly questionable where the damages are a result of a decision made by the listener, a city council, to which both plaintiff and defendant have constitutionally guaranteed access under the Petition Clause.