Justice Thomas 'beating his drum' to attack landmark press freedom decision in fiery dissent: expert

Ironically, a 1964 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that Justice Clarence Thomas and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would like to reconsider — New York Times v. Sullivan — is one that right-wing Fox News' attorneys used to defend themselves when Dominion Voting Systems sued Fox News for defamation. Thanks to Sullivan, Dominion had an uphill climb, but Dominion's case was so strong that Fox News ended up agreeing to a $787.5 million settlement.

Under Sullivan, an unanimous decision, Chief Justice Earl Warren (a Republican appointee of President Dwight D. Eisenhower) and his colleagues agreed that public figures in a defamation lawsuit must show "actual malice." Sullivan offers a lot of protection to media figures, including right-wing pundits at Fox News, Fox Business and Newsmax. Regardless, Thomas is a vocal Sullivan critic.

But on Tuesday, October 10, the Roberts Court, CNN reports, declined to revisit Sullivan via the case Don Blankenship v. NBC Universal —although Thomas is hoping the justices will reconsider someday.

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Thomas wrote, "In an appropriate case, however, we should reconsider New York Times and our other decisions displacing state defamation law."

CNN's Devon Cole notes, "Just a few months ago, the conservative justice attacked the ruling in Sullivan in a fiery dissent in which he called it 'flawed.' Thomas issued other public critiques of Sullivan in recent years, including in 2019, when he wrote that the ruling and 'the Court's decisions extending it were policy-driven decisions masquerading as constitutional law."

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Read CNN's full report at this link.