Bob CollinsThe Minnesota Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether a Central Minnesota domestic violence support organization, which allowed a woman at a fundraiser to give a speech about her alleged domestic abuse, can be sued for defamation. The organization — Someplace Safe — also printed details in a newsletter.
The case brought by her ex-husband, whose name was not mentioned in either the speech or newsletter, was thrown out by a district court, but it was reinstated in February by the Minnesota Court of Appeals, which said a fundraising banquet isn’t the place to raise allegations of criminality. I wrote about it here.
Eugene Volokh, the UCLA free speech law professor, writes on his blog that he’s filing a friend of the court brief on behalf of the organization, which was sued because of Jacquelyn Jorud’s remarks when she received a “Survivor’s Award” at the dinner in Fergus Falls.
The Court of Appeals said the speech is not protected.
But, writing on his blog, Volokh says a newsletter published by an organization, has the same First Amendment protections as the daily paper, which would require ex-husband Kurt Maethner to prove malice in order to win a defamation case.
“Every other federal circuit court to consider this issue has likewise held that the First Amendment applies equally to media and nonmedia speakers in defamation actions,” Volokh writes, while noting he’s taking no position of whether Maethner was actually libeled by Someplace Safe, but that it’s newsletter enjoys the same First Amendment protections as a newspaper.
In February, Minnesota Court of Appeals Judge Diane Bratvold wrote that Someplace Safe isn’t provided the same protection because the article it printed — basically written by the ex-wife — was not content from a wire service or other news service.
