Trump impeachment lawyer snubbed by SCOTUS in challenge to press freedom ruling

(CN) — The Supreme Court said Monday it would not revive Alan Dershowitz’s $300 million defamation suit against CNN, refusing to review a landmark First Amendment precedent protecting press freedom.

The high court denied the writ of certiorari in a 7-2 decision. Justice Clarence Thomas wrote in a dissenting opinion joined by Justice Neil Gorsuch that the “actual malice” standard established in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan should be reconsidered because it bore no relation to the text of the Constitution.

“Instead, the founding generation believed that, if anything, public figures had stronger claims for damages when they were defamed,” Thomas wrote.

Dershowitz, a retired Harvard University law professor and practicing criminal defense lawyer, asked the justices to revive his lawsuit against the cable news network and reexamine the standard for suing journalists for their reporting.

For 61 years, New York Times v. Sullivan has allowed the press to report on public figures without the threat of costly libel suits. A bedrock of modern libel law and one of the Supreme Court’s most significant First Amendment rulings, the landmark 1964 decision says public officials must show actual malice — knowledge of or reckless disregard for the falsity of a statement — to prevail in a libel suit.

An appeals court rejected Dershowitz’s suit under the standard. Dershowitz told the Supreme Court that the ruling was evidence of the unworkability of the precedent.

“Over the course of six decades, New York Times Co. v. Sullivan has morphed into an impregnable fortress that protects media irresponsibility while denying public figures any remedy for egregious misrepresentations,” Dershowitz wrote in his petition.

Dershowitz has made a name for himself representing prominent figures in some of the most infamous criminal trials in recent memory, including O.J. Simpson. He also represented Jeffrey Epstein against accusations by women and girls that Epstein had sexually assaulted them when they were underage.

Dershowitz’s suit against CNN traces back to his time representing President Donald Trump during his first impeachment trial in January 2020. At the center of Dershowitz’s complaint were remarks he made about the scope of impeachable offenses in response to a question from Senator Ted Cruz.

More than a few observers of the trial including CNN immediately thought that Dershowitz was arguing that a president could get away with any impeachable offense if he claimed it was in the public interest. While Dershowitz had prefaced his remarks by stating that a quid pro quo would only be unlawful if the quo itself was illegal, that context was left out of clips that CNN aired.

Dershowitz argued the network collaborated to deceive viewers, pointing to a series of internal emails in which a correspondent said he had “gone crazy,” and phone calls with producers discussing arguments made by Trump’s legal team.

A panel on the 11th Circuit, however, determined that the communications displayed the reporter’s sincerity — even if it was misplaced.

The appeals court said CNN offered unrefuted evidence that its commentators believed in the truth of their statements about Dershowitz and reached their interpretations independently. They noted that at least two commentators — Joe Lockhart and Paul Begala — tweeted critically about Dershowitz’s statement while he was still speaking or shortly after he concluded, refuting any contention that their opinions were formed a few hours later at the direction of CNN leaders.

The network also allowed Dershowitz to go on air twice to explain his position after he complained it had mischaracterized his statements.

Thomas, a George H.W. Bush appointee, faced significant scrutiny from the press during his bruising confirmation hearing in 1991, where he was accused of sexually harassing a former employee, Anita Hill. Recently, a ProPublica investigation drew national attention to the justice’s decision to accept luxury trips and other gifts from wealthy conservative benefactors without disclosing them.

Gorsuch is a Trump appointee.

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