May 30, 2005 13:10
Respondent, an elected official in Montgomery, Alabama, brought suit in a state court alleging that he had been libeled by an advertisement in corporate petitioner's newspaper, the text of which appeared over the names of the four individual petitioners and many others. The advertisement included statements, some of which were false, about police action allegedly directed against students who participated in a civil rights demonstration and against a leader of the civil rights movement; respondent claimed the statements referred to him because his duties included supervision of the police department. The trial judge instructed the jury that such statements were "libelous per se," legal injury being implied without proof of actual damages, and that, for the purpose of compensatory damages, malice was presumed, so that such damages could be awarded against petitioners if the statements were found to have been published by them and to have related to respondent. As to punitive damages, the judge instructed that mere negligence was not evidence of actual malice, and would not justify an award of punitive damages; he refused to instruct that actual intent to harm or recklessness had to be found before punitive damages could be awarded, or that a verdict for respondent should differentiate between compensatory and punitive damages. The jury found for respondent, and the State Supreme Court affirmed.
Held: A State cannot, under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, award damages to a public official for defamatory falsehood relating to his official conduct unless he proves "actual malice"--that the statement was made with knowledge of its falsity or with reckless disregard of whether it was true or false. Pp. 265-292.
My mom is being such a bitch. Okay well we will get back to that later.
Well on Saturday I went to the underground band productions and other people were supposed to come but they didn’t. It was cool though A lot of the bands were really good. Eternal Essence was great. The band from Mass was awesome too. Good Night Or Sleep opened it with a bang. The Zebras ended it with a song called Two Seconds which was a really neat song, I saw Kim and her boyfriend. I saw Ryan met his sister Katie. I mat a girl named Cherise ( I think that’s what it was) and her friend Eric and her ex. I can’t believe she drank the pollen water. Okay so after that Me and six other people got jumped over by Kim’s boyfriend. He seemed cool. He was mean but cool too. Fran scared me and showed up. I think he thinks I’m on drugs but that’s okay we will sort that out later. I saw Alicia and her boyfriend Mike who someone was worried about. I met Lana and her friends. I found out a few things about her and also I didn’t mean it when I said you looked like you were on crack it was just your hyperness. WE almost would have had a massive orgy but we didn’t damn
Sunday- I was made to clean my bathroom , my room, the floor, fold clothes, and other work which was so gay because I had all my homework to do and that bitch who calls herself my mom wouldn’t let me. So she finally went out and I was able to do my homework. Haha Bitch, I watched inspector gadget 2. Cute movie. I remember the first one.
Today. Not much has happened except my mom is being a bitch. I wake up ad she’s like you have 15 minutes to get all your stuff done , shower and come help me. I was like no I helped you with your crap yesterday. She’s like what crap. The food and everything else. Then I called her gay and went to take a shower. SO we aren’t talking and she keeps babbling I swear I’m so close to leaving the house. I got my job offer and have to find dates when I am working. But I swear to god if she hits my face once again I will hit her back so hard her head wills pin. I haven’t eaten anything and I’m hungry but her fat ass is in the kitchen.
I swear to god I am so god damned fed up with this world and I have nothing more to live for. The Girl who I hate so much has already taken my place for all my friends. I seriously think they couldn’t care less if I died which would make it so much easier to die. I am going to fight back but she will prolly make it look like I did something wrong. As always. She even has my dog eating out of her hand. This is serious bullshit. Either I get it all back or I will not get anything back. They don’t care for me so I’d rather just leave it all. I will stand alone as usual. The only good thing is I am used to the feeling of loneliness. I like the feeling of being a lone and I might as well just stay that way.
Saagar everyone has changed and people suck for doing that. Yet sometimes they don’t know they have changed and that makes then even more retarded. GRR
My head is spinning.