Jury rejects Sarah Palin’s libel claim against the New York Times

On Monday afternoon, United States District Judge Jed Rakoff of the Southern District of New York threw out a frivolous libel suit filed against The New York Times by former Alaska governor and 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

“My job is to apply the law. The law sets a very high standard for actual malice, and in this case, the Court finds that standard has not been met," Rakoff said in his ruling. Rakoff did, however, permit the case to be heard by a jury, which handed down its verdict on Tuesday afternoon.

Palin did not fare any better.

The jury found "that there was insufficient evidence to prove the newspaper had defamed her in a 2017 editorial that erroneously linked her political rhetoric to a mass shooting," the Times reported, noting that "a public figure like Ms. Palin has to prove that a news organization acted with 'actual malice' in publishing false information, meaning it displayed a reckless disregard for the truth or knew the information was false."

The paper also took a small victory lap in its coverage of the verdict, pointing out that it "has not lost a libel case in an American courtroom in at least 50 years."

The Times added that Palin is expected to file an appeal.