Former Republican Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has another shot at suing the New York Times after an appeals court reversed a lower court opinion dismissing her defamation case against the newspaper.
Appeals court Judge John M. Walker Jr. ruled Tuesday that the district court judge in the case “erred in relying on acts outside the pleadings to dismiss the complaint,” adding that the amended complaint “plausibly states a claim for defamation and may proceed to full discovery.”
Palin, 55, had filed the lawsuit in June 2017 in response to an editorial that drew a link between the shooting of former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and a map of crosshairs over Democratic congressional districts that her political action committee SarahPAC had circulated. In 2011, the 49-year-old Democrat was shot in the head by a gunman during an assassination attempt in Tucson, Arizona.
The Times editorial was published in the wake of the 2017 congressional baseball practice shooting that injured six, including Republican Louisiana Rep. Steve Scalise. When reflecting upon the Giffords shooting and the PAC map, the initial editorial concluded that the “link to political incitement was clear.”
The Times issued a correction the following day that backed off of its previous assertion.
“An earlier version of this editorial incorrectly stated that a link existed between political incitement and the 2011 shooting of Representative Gabby Giffords. In fact, no such link was established,” the correction read. Regardless, Palin decided to file a defamation lawsuit in the Southern District of New York over the matter.
Judge Jed Rakoff had ruled in August 2017 that the case be dismissed, writing, “Negligence this may be; but defamation of a public figure it plainly is not.”
After Tuesday’s reversal, Libby Locke and Ken Turkel, Palin’s attorneys in the case, issued a statement noting that the lawsuit was about holding the media accountable.
“This is — and has always been — a case about media accountability. We are pleased with the Court’s decision, and we look forward to starting discovery and ultimately proceeding to trial,” the statement read.
