Showing posts with label Supreme Irony. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Supreme Irony. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Supreme Irony


The object lesson to be drawn from the current Brett Kavanaugh Supreme Court confiirmation imbroglio is dripping  full of irony. This irony derives from a previous (1960) Supreme Court decision (New York Times Co. v. Sullivan) that makes it very burdensome for someone in public office to sue successfully for libel or slander. This almost 60-year-old decision puts an almost impossible burden on the plaintiff ... that the defendant had to not only known the allegation was false .. but must have acted with "malice aforethought."  It might seem obvious why some media might issue lies ... but proving motivation is a mile-high hurdle.

Therefore, if Kavanaigh were to survive this Democrat assassination attempt and take his seat on the Supreme Court, he likely couldn't or wouldn't sue Christine Ford, the New Yorker magazine or Michael Avenati. And, even worse, if such a case were to make it back to the Supreme Court, Justice Kavanaugh would likely have to recuse himself from the case.