The White House is “looking into” ways to potentially change the nation’s libel laws to make it easier to go after reporters whose stories they deem inaccurate.
That’s according to President Trump’s chief spokesman Sean Spicer who told reporters during a Monday briefing that: “that is something that is being looked into, substantively and then both logistically how it would happen.”
Trump had pledged during his campaign to “open up” the nation’s libel laws — a process that could not be accomplished by the White House. That would require a constitutional amendment or a reversal of Supreme Court precedent interpreting the First Amendment.
White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus told ABC on Sunday that the issue has been discussed — but cautioned that “how that gets executed or whether that goes anywhere is a different story.”
Trump repeatedly threatened news outlets with lawsuits during his campaign and first lady Melania Trump last month reached a multi-million dollar settlement with the publisher of the Daily Mail newspaper for reporting rumors about her time as a model.
Libel law in the U.S. generally makes it difficult for public figures to sue reporters and others who criticize them. The Supreme Court has repeatedly held that a plaintiff must demonstrate that statements were factually inaccurate as well as made with “actual malice” or a “reckless disregard” for the truth.
Trump has railed against what he deems unfair media coverage, labeling many outlets “fake news” and declaring them “the enemy of the American People!”
At a Texas campaign rally, Trump said he wanted to “open up” U.S. libel laws “so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money.”
“Believe me: If I become president, oh, do they have problems. They’re going to have such problems,” he said then.
(AP)
Join the official YWN WhatsApp status
5 Responses
Yes I agree. Lets make libel an impeachable offense and remove this authoritarian clown from office for spreading libel and slander about Ted Cruz’s father killing Kennedy and Barak Obama wiretapping Trump Tower.
#1 completely true. The great defender of the 2nd amendment wants to destroy the first, dangerous and moronic.
Libel and slander laws are matters of state law. The only Federal issue is to what extent the 1st amendment (applied to states by the 14th) restricts libel laws.
The real problem is that any rule that makes it easier for politicians to sue will undermine free speech. One really wants statements such as “Barack Obama was a fool” or “Jimmy Carter is incompetent” or “Bill Clinton was amoral” or “Hillary Clinton is dumb” to be privileged. Or to refer to the earlier post, we don’t want it to be illegal or actionable to say that President Trump is an “authoritarian clown”. “Truth” is subjective, e.g. Obama did supervise people who probably did have surveillance systems that were picking up communications involving Trump Tower (NSA monitors all communications, that’s part of their job), so was it “true” that “Obama” (who was in charge of the NSA at the time) wiretapped Trump???
Modifying the libel laws would adversely effect the media that Trump follows such as Fox, Infowars and the National Enquirer. Hannity, O’Reilly, and Rush Limbaugh Trump could also face litigation over his completely false claim that he so frequently makes.
President Trump is correct. The opposition to him is so biased that it must be fought in the courts. There is no freedom of speech allowing lies and slander.