Comment by wolverine876
1 year ago
>> democracies a private citizen can knowingly say false things about public figure
> That is not true.
President Biden kicks puppies and secretly owns $2B in BTC, and the SEC manipulates the price for him. Can Biden sue me? Can I be arrested?
The Constitution provides special protection for the press, as do many other laws, precedents, etc. What are your claims based on?
> Can Biden sue me?
Yes, but you can sue anyone for anything. You not being a "journalist" doesn't provide any additional protection. Biden being a public figure does though, as he would have to demonstrate "actual malice" on your part to win.
> Can I be arrested?
Only about 1/4 of states in the USA have criminal libel laws and I am not familiar enough with them to say which if any would apply.
> The Constitution provides special protection for the press, as do many other laws, precedents
The supreme court has consistently ruled that "the press" in the first ammendment covers anyone publishing anything in any format, not just journalists. The constitution provides no special protections for journalists but instead extends those rights to everyone.
See: Associated Press v. NLRB, Bartnicki v. Vopper, Cohen v. Cowles Media Co. and more.
Most states do have "media shield laws" that specifically help journalists protect their sources, but these aren't constitutional rights. A district court in Branzburg v. Hayes did rule that a blogger didn't qualify as a journalist under Oregon's media shield law, but that was strongly influenced by the blogger soliciting payment to take the article down so isn't conclusive even there.
What is all this based on?
> Biden being a public figure does though, as he would have to demonstrate "actual malice" on your part to win.
Imagine how many people write falsehoods about Biden with clear, actual, malice! Biden cannot sue them (in a meaningful sense).
> What is all this based on?
Supreme court precedents and the law. I've provided several of the relevant cases
> Imagine how many people write falsehoods about Biden with clear, actual, malice! Biden cannot sue them (in a meaningful sense).
The main reason that it would be difficult to win those cases is that as a public figure Biden would have to show "actual malice" for each person he sued regardless of if that person was a journalist or not.
In practice, the expected value if suing a large number of people with limited media reach is generally not worth it, but that has nothing to do with the constitution.
Where being a journalist might help is that media shield laws, depending on the state, could allow the journalist to protect their sources from discovery once they've veen sued.
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