Court Opinion

ID: 9773413
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:44:58.784351+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:53.530891
License: Public Domain

DONNELLY, Judge
dissenting.
In New York Times v. Sullivan, 376 U.S. 254, 84 S.Ct. 710, 11 L.Ed.2d 686 (1964), the United States Supreme Court sought to constitutionalize the law of defamation in the States. It held that a public official may not recover “damages for a defamatory falsehood relating to his official conduct unless he proves that the statement was made with actual malice — that is, with *634knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.” 376 U.S., at 279-280, 84 S.Ct. at 726.
In Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts, 388 U.S. 130, 87 S.Ct. 1975, 18 L.Ed.2d 1094 (1967) and Associated Press v. Walker, 388 U.S. 130, 87 S.Ct. 1975, 18 L.Ed.2d 1094 (1967), the Court extended the actual malice standard to include “public figures.”
In Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323, 94 S.Ct. 2997, 41 L.Ed.2d 789 (1974), the Court reaffirmed the actual malice standard for public officials and public figures but held that for private figures the States could establish their own standards of liability for defamation so long as fault is an essential element and so long as recovery of presumed or punitive damages is not permitted absent proof of actual malice.
In Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. v. Greenmoss Builders, Inc., 472 U.S. 749, 763, 105 S.Ct. 2939, 2948, 86 L.Ed.2d 593 (1985), an opinion by Justice Powell stated “that permitting recovery of presumed and punitive damages in defamation cases absent a showing of ‘actual malice’ does not "violate the First Amendment when the defamatory statements do not involve matters of public concern.” Rehnquist and O’Connor, JJ., concurred. Burger, C.J., and White, J., concurred in the judgment. Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun and Stevens, JJ., dissented.
In such confusing circumstance1, I would turn to the Constitution of Missouri which provides “that every person shall be free to say, write or publish, or otherwise communicate whatever he will on any subject, being responsible for abuses of that liberty * * Mo. Const, art. I, § 8; see Mo. Const, art. XIII, § 16 (1820).
In constructing a Missouri constitutional model, I am reminded that “freedom of speech is guaranteed to the individual and newspaper by the Constitution. Courts are charged with the duty they may not preter-mit, to see to it that it is not abridged. It is, however, the use, and not the abuse of free speech and free press that is guarded by the fundamental law as sacred.” Diener v. Star-Chronicle Publishing Company, 230 Mo. 613, 629, 132 S.W. 1143, 1148 (banc 1910).
In 1927, Justice Brandéis expressed the view that “[prohibition of free speech and assembly is a measure so stringent that it would be inappropriate as the means for averting a relatively trivial harm to society.” Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357, 377, 47 S.Ct. 641, 649, 71 L.Ed. 1095 (1927) (Brandéis, J., concurring). I agree. In similar vein, I believe that a model for the tort of defamation which excessively inhibits free expression by threat of penalty is a form of prior restraint on the right to communicate and is prohibited by our Constitution.
Given the intense concern for freedom of expression articulated in our Constitution, I believe that a “defendant who has abused the right of free expression by defamatory statements may be held responsible only to the extent of permitting the injured party to recover for the resulting injury to reputation — that is, to recover compensatory damages.” Wheeler v. Green, 286 Or. 99, 593 P.2d 777, 788 (1979). I believe “that the possibility of excessive and unbridled jury verdicts, grounded on punitive assessments, may impermissibly chill the exercise of * * * [the right to speak freely] by promoting apprehensive self-censorship.” *635Stone v. Essex County Newspapers, Inc., 367 Mass. 498, 330 N.E.2d 161, 169 (1975).2
Accordingly, I would hold:
First, one who publishes a false and defamatory communication concerning a public or private person or figure in regard to matters of public or private concern is subject to liability for defamation, if, but only if, he
(a) knows that the statement is false and that it defames the other person, or
(b) acts in reckless disregard of these matters.
See Restatement (Second) of Torts § 580A, at 214 (1977); MAI3d 23.06(2).
Second, punitive damages may not be assessed in cases involving the tort of defamation.
I respectfully dissent.

. Beginning in the years of Chief Justice Warren, the Court has sought, with unblinking support from academia and the media, to direct social policy in America. Its majority has forgotten that the genius of our constitutional system lies in its basic reliance on the concept of democracy and the diversity of input it provides.
The Court plays a necessary role when it protects "discrete and insular minorities." United States v. Carolene Products Co., 304 U.S. 144, 152 n. 4, 58 S.Ct. 778, 783 n. 4, 82 L.Ed. 1234 (1938).
But, as with New York Times, other Court attempts at nationalization must invariably fail because they violate the integrity of process implanted in our Constitution. See A. Bickel, The Morality of Consent 120-21 (1975). Such integrity of process derives, of course, from the fundamental concept that the people, not the Court, are sovereign.

. See Anderson, Reputation, Compensation and Proof, 25 Wm. & Mary L.Rev. 747, 749 (1984); Van Alstyne, First Amendment Limitations on Recovery from the Press — An Extended Comment on "The Anderson Solution," 25 Wm. & Mary L.Rev. 793 (1984); Franklin, A Critique of Libel Law, 18 U.S.F.L. Rev. 1 (1983-84).