Federal Court Resurrects Sarah Palin’s Lawsuit Against New York Times

A Federal court has resurrected a lawsuit filed by former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin against the New York Times.

Palin sued the news outlet back in 2017 after the outlet falsely claimed Palin and her campaign encouraged the 2011 shooting of Rep. Gabby Giffords.

In Palin’s lawsuit, the former governor stated, “No such encouragement of connection to the shooting was ever produced.”

Palin further alleged that the “staff had intentionally published false information in an attempt to smear her and damage her reputation.”

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff in 2022 dismissed the case, but Judge Rakoff’s decision has been overturned by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.

Circuit Judge John Walker Jr ruled, “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.”

… and just got great news re: PALIN vs NYT trial 👍🇺🇸 https://t.co/xp4RXbJTT5 pic.twitter.com/M2bRliz7vN

— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) August 28, 2024

Here’s what Fox News reported:

A lawsuit against the New York Times brought by former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has been resurrected by a federal court.

Palin, a former Republican vice presidential candidate, sued the 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.

No such encouragement of connection to the shooting was ever produced — Palin filed suit against the newspaper, alleging staff had intentionally published false information in an attempt to smear her and damage her reputation.

U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff dismissed the lawsuit in February 2022 in the middle of jury deliberations. He 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.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan on Wednesday overturned that dismissal and verdict, finding that Rakoff made a series of errors that qualify the lawsuit for a retrial.

“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.

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin's defamation lawsuit against the New York Times has just been revived by a federal appeals court.@CevallosLaw joins @ChrisJansing to share his legal analysis. pic.twitter.com/sFQDa1yHKi

— MSNBC Reports (@MSNBC_reports) August 28, 2024

Per ABC News:

A federal appeals court on Wednesday revived Sarah Palin’s defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, finding several major issues “impugn the reliability” of the original outcome.

The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals faulted the trial judge for dismissing the case before the jury had reached a verdict. The jury was allowed to continue deliberating before ultimately finding the newspaper not liable in February 2022.

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“Unfortunately, several major issues at trial — specifically, the erroneous exclusion of evidence, an inaccurate jury instruction, a legally erroneous response to a mid-deliberation jury question, and jurors learning during deliberations of the district court’s Rule 50 dismissal ruling — impugn the reliability of that verdict,” the opinion said.