Constitutional Law Keyed to Cohen
Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc
Facts
In 1968, a policeman in Chicago shot and killed a youth, for which he was later indicted and convicted for murder in the second degree. Following the criminal trial, the family of the youth obtained Petitioner to represent them in civil litigation against the officer. In a periodical called the American Opinion, Respondent as managing editor commissioned an article on the trial of the officer. In one issue he made statements linking Petitioner and the trial against the officer to the Communist Party. Statements made included referring to Petitioner as a Leninist and stating that he belonged to Communist groups. The statements made in American Opinion contained many serious inaccuracies concerning Petitioner and there was no basis for many of the accusations made towards Petitioner in the magazine. Respondent made no effort to verify or substantiate the charges against Petitioner, but instead wrote an editorial introduction stating that the author of the article performed exten sive research into the case, and wrote libelous captions under a picture of Petitioner he included in the article. Petitioner filed an action for libel in United States District Court, which concluded that the New York Times standard should govern this case even though Petitioner is not a public figure. Petitioner appealed the use of this standard to the Court of Appeals, which affirmed the decision, causing the case to come before the Supreme Court.
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