Opinion ID: 780589
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Further Arguments

Text: 91 The plaintiff and intervenors challenge the criminal libel statute on two additional grounds. First, they argue that the penalty of restitution permitted by section 4101 violates the Gertz requirement that damages be proven unless liability is established under the actual malice standard. See Gertz, 418 U.S. at 349-50, 94 S.Ct. 2997 (prohibiting presumed or punitive damages, at least when liability is not based on a showing of knowledge of falsity or reckless disregard for the truth and requiring that all awards must be supported by competent evidence concerning the injury). Second, plaintiffs independently challenge section 4104, which requires that the criminal court shall order the publication of conviction for libel through the same or analogous means as the libel was published. The plaintiff and intervenors argue that this provision unconstitutionally violates editorial independence under the standards set out in Miami Herald v. Tornillo, 418 U.S. 241, 94 S.Ct. 2831, 41 L.Ed.2d 730 (1974). 92 We have held that section 4101 violates the First Amendment under several analyses; as to section 4104, there is no severability clause, and this section would in any event lack force standing alone. We need not reach the separate questions of whether the penalty of restitution or the requirement of publication of conviction violates the First Amendment.