Court revives Sarah Palin's libel lawsuit against The New York Times
federal appeals court revived Sarah Palin's libel case against The New York Times on Wednesday, citing errors by a lower court judge, particularly his decision to dismiss the lawsuit while a jury was deliberating.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan wrote that Judge Jed S. Rakoff's decision in February 2022 to dismiss the lawsuit mid-deliberations improperly intruded on the jury's work.
It also found that the erroneous exclusion of evidence, an inaccurate jury instruction and an erroneous response to a question from the jury tainted the jury's decision to rule against Palin. It declined, however, to grant Palin's request to force Rakoff off the case on grounds he was biased against her. The 2nd Circuit said she had offered no proof.
The libel lawsuit by Palin, a onetime Republican vice presidential candidate and former governor of Alaska, centered on the newspaper's 2017 editorial falsely linking her campaign rhetoric to a mass shooting, which Palin asserted damaged her reputation and career.
The Times acknowledged its editorial was inaccurate but said it quickly corrected errors it called an «honest mistake» that were never meant to harm Palin.
Shane Vogt, a lawyer for Palin, said he was reviewing the opinion.
Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesperson for the Times, said the decision was disappointing. «We're confident we will prevail in a retrial,» he said in an email.
The 2nd Circuit, in a ruling written by Judge John M. Walker Jr., reversed the jury verdict, along with Rakoff's decision to
