ABSTRACT
This article addresses the complex past and uncertain future of defamation law in order to evaluate complaints lodged against it by critics, including – most notably – US Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch. The article describes how statutory and constitutional reforms have altered the legal landscape of defamation law over the past half-century and explains why the common law has played a less prominent role. The article then assesses the criticisms of Justices Thomas and Gorsuch, finding them to rest on flawed understandings of how today’s defamation law operates. After identifying barriers to reform, the article offers a prescription to modernize defamation law that would include new remedies to vindicate damaged reputations, new incentives for journalists to get the facts rights, and new deterrents to libel bullying.
Lidsky, Lyrissa Barnett, Cheap Speech and the Gordian Knot of Defamation Reform, 3 Journal of Free Speech Law 79 (2023); University of Florida Levin College of Law Research Paper Forthcoming.
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