Today, our firm file an amicus brief in support of a petition for certiorari filed by Coral Ridge Ministries. In the courts below (where we filed an amicus brief), Coral Ridge’s defamation complaint against SPLC was dismissed under the Supreme Court’s decision in New York Times v. Sullivan. Our brief explained that Sullivan stops properly pled defamation cases at the pleading stage, before discovery can be conducted which would establish the allegations. This Supreme Court doctrine has protected organizations like SPLC from the consequences of defamation, allowing such organizations to raise significant amounts of money, while endangering those that they oppose. Finally, we explained how Sullivan usurped the states’ common law defamation jurisprudence, and instead, improperly constitutionalizing defamation law.
