A New York judge accepted Donald Trump’s motion to dismiss a libel lawsuit brought against him by Cheryl Jacobus, a political strategist Trump said on Twitter had “begged” him for a job and was only criticizing him because she was rebuffed.
The Hollywood Reporter, which first reported the dismissal and which posted the decision on its website, noted that “Donald Trump says he wants to ‘open up’ libel laws but a few days before he becomes the next President of the United States, he became fortunate that such laws place high burdens on plaintiffs.”
In siding with Trump, New York Supreme Court Judge Barbara Jaffe characterized his tweet as an opinion, and noted his habit of using Twitter as such.
“His tweets about his critics, necessarily restricted to 140 characters or less, are rife with vague and simplistic insults such as ‘loser’ or ‘total loser’ or ‘totally biased loser,’ ‘dummy’ or ‘dope’ or ‘dumb,’ ‘zero/no credibility,’ ‘crazy’ or ‘wacko’ and ‘disaster,’ all deflecting serious consideration,” Jaffe wrote.
The judge ruled that while Trump’s use of Twitter as a campaign tool might make it different from the kind of heated statements courts have previously decided “constitute communications that cannot be taken seriously,” reasonable readers should understand Trump was using the social media platform to express his “opinion, even if some of the statements, viewed in isolation, could be found to convey facts.” This, she decided, was consistent with precedent and “the spirit of the First Amendment.” So while the judge found the tweets were “intended to belittle and demean,” she ruled that a reasonable readings would preclude concluding that those tweets could somehow “damage [Jacobus’] reputation as a partisan political consultant and commentator.”
Via Reason