Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is back in the spotlight.
But it’s not because she’s campaigning for Donald Trump.
It’s because her team has scored a huge legal victory.
Palin has been in an on-going legal battle against The New York Times. According to Fox News, Palin sued the media outlet after it published a 2017 editorial claiming her campaign had encouraged the 2011 shooting of then-Rep. Gabby Giffords. The editorial in question was published on the day of a mass shooting at a congressional baseball practice game.
In February 2022, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff dismissed the lawsuit while in the middle of jury deliberations.
According to the Fox News report, Rakoff allowed the jurors to finish deliberating and give a verdict, which ultimately favored the New York Times, but lawyers pointed out that individuals on the jury received notifications from the outlet mid-deliberation announcing the judge’s dismissal.
But yesterday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan overturned that dismissal and verdict, finding that Rakoff made a series of errors that qualify the lawsuit for a retrial.
Court revives Sarah Palin's libel lawsuit against The New York Times https://t.co/wXyf572s9S
— KVUE News (@KVUE) August 29, 2024
Palin’s legal team called the ruling “a significant step forward in the process of holding publishers accountable for content that misleads readers and the public in general.”
“The truth deserves a level playing field, and Governor Palin looks forward to presenting her case to a jury that is ‘provided with relevant proffered evidence and properly instructed on the law,’” Palin lawyer Shane Vogt said.
In the surprise overturning of the original finding, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals noted:
“We have no difficulty concluding that an average jury’s verdict would be affected if several jurors knew that the judge had already ruled for one of the parties on the very claims the jurors were charged with deciding,” 2nd Circuit Judge John Walker Jr. said regarding the dismissal.
“We think a jury’s verdict reached with the knowledge of the judge’s already-announced disposition of the case will rarely be untainted, no matter what the jurors say upon subsequent inquiry,” Walker said, addressing claims from jurors that the dismissal and subsequent notifications did not affect their decision.
Additionally, the court noted several other issues with how Palin’s lawsuit was handled, including restrictions on her claim that editorial page editor James Bennet allowed the unsubstantiated claims against her to politically aid his brother, Sen. Michael Bennet of Colorado, according to Fox News.
The New York Times called the ruling “disappointing,” but said it is confident the lawsuit will be dismissed again in a retrial.