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Justice Clarence Thomas on Tuesday called for the Supreme Court to reconsider New York Times v. Sullivan, the landmark 1964 ruling interpreting the First Amendment to make it hard for public officials to prevail in libel suits. He said the decision had no basis in the Constitution as it was understood by the people who drafted and ratified it. “New York Times and the court’s decisions extending it were policy-driven decisions masquerading as constitutional law,” Justice Thomas wrote. Justice Thomas, writing only for himself, made his statement in a concurring opinion agreeing that the court had correctly turned down an appeal from Kathrine McKee, who has accused Bill Cosby of sexual assault. She sued Mr. Cosby for libel after his lawyer said she had been dishonest. Justice Thomas’s statement came in the wake of complaints from President Trump that libel laws make it too hard for public officials to win libel suits.
The New York Times
The Kentucky teenager at the center of a confrontation last month with a Native American man at the Lincoln Memorial has sued The Washington Post, alleging that the newspaper made “false and defamatory accusations” against him in its coverage of the episode. Nicholas Sandmann, 16, a student at Covington Catholic High School in Park Hills, Ky., is seeking $250 million in damages from The Post — the same amount Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos paid for ownership of the paper in 2013, according to a copy of the suit Sandmann’s attorneys posted on their website.
Politico
A bill to open records on completed police internal affairs investigations cleared its first legislative hurdle Tuesday evening, passing the Colorado House Judiciary Committee on a 7-4 vote. Similar in many respects to unsuccessful 2018 legislation, House Bill 19-1119 is an “an opportunity to facilitate growth in trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve,” said Rep. James Coleman, the Denver Democrat who introduced the measure. “When we support growth in trust and transparency, the relationships between law enforcement and Coloradans can deepen in positive ways.” As amended by the committee, the bill would require disclosure of records that examine a law enforcement officer’s in-uniform or on-duty conduct once an internal investigation is finished. A requester would have access to records “related to a specific, identifiable incident of alleged misconduct involving a member of the public,” including witness interviews, recordings, transcripts and documentary evidence, although law enforcement agencies would be permitted to first provide a summary before giving access to an entire internal affairs file.
Colorado Freedom of Information Coalition
Regulators at the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as well as physicians, pharmacists, and drug company representatives, all knew that existing safeguards were not stopping the illicit spread of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl, according to research published in JAMA Network on Tuesday. The analysis was based on 4,877 pages of FDA documents that were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
Fortune
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“When we support growth in trust and transparency, the relationships between law enforcement and Coloradans can deepen in positive ways.”
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