"Judge Dismisses Bogus Defamation Lawsuit Against Foxconn Critic"

The Institute for Justice, which represented the critic, so reports.

There's no written decision, and no transcript of the hearing yet; but I've found IJ to be highly reliable in the past, so I thought I'd pass along its statement on the matter (from Tuesday):

This afternoon, Judge Jon E. Fredrickson of the Racine County Circuit Court granted the Institute for Justice's (IJ's) request to dismiss a defamation suit brought by Mount Pleasant Village Attorney Chris Smith against local political activist Kelly Gallaher from the bench. During a controversy over a proposed change to the term lengths of members of the Mount Pleasant village board, Smith told a local newspaper that the change had been discussed "since 2018." This struck Kelly as wrong, and she followed up by sending Smith a public-records request for all records of public discussions since 2018. Told there were no records dating that far back, Kelly went public, accusing Smith of lying in emails to reporters and in social media posts.

Smith responded promptly, telling Kelly he would sue her for defamation unless she publicly posted a retraction that he wrote himself and "refrain[ed] from publicly referencing [him] in any comment, regardless of whether such comment is written or spoken." Kelly, who is not a lawyer and was frightened by the cost of a potential lawsuit, posted the retraction he wrote for her. And Smith sued her anyway.

"Public officials don't get to use lawsuits to punish people for criticizing them," explained IJ Senior Attorney Robert McNamara. "Chris Smith's lawsuit was transparently bogus and had no basis in the law. But a lawsuit doesn't need to have any merit to scare people into silence, and that's all too often the whole point of lawsuits like this one." …

Kelly had done her research and fully explained her basis for thinking that Smith was lying, and Smith (as a government official) has to overcome the high bar of First Amendment protection for speech like Kelly's. For both reasons, IJ's brief argued, the case should be dismissed.

In today's ruling from the bench, Judge Fredrickson agreed. "We're talking about public citizens trying to do their due diligence about what their governments are doing," he explained from the bench. "The record here is clear that [Kelly's] Facebook, email, and Twitter statements are not defamatory." [I assume that means not subject to defamation liability, even if they tend to damage the plaintiff's reputation. -EV]

Judge Fredrickson did not find that Smith had actually lied in his statements to the press, noting that, "Attorney Smith is not a liar, I'm not finding that." Instead, the judge emphasized that a defamation suit was inappropriate because, whether Chris Smith had lied or not, Kelly "appeared to be concerned with getting the truth or falsity correct." …

Comments

[ThanksForTheFish]

Mt pleasant is run as a private fiefdom by the noxious officials who run the village. That goes for the elected and unelected sleaze.

[DaivdBehar]

"But a lawsuit doesn't need to have any merit to scare people into silence, and that's all too often the whole point of lawsuits like this one."

The same is true for all investigations by government thugs. This is Democrat lawfare. It has be crushed with all costs coming from personal assets.

[JHR]

Of course the court didn't "find" that the plaintiff was a liar. It was an MTD.

[ReaderY]

I think this is one of those cases, like so many, where it’s better to have a statement of the facts as articulated by the judge, rather than by a party’s attorneys or an advocacy group, before forming an opinion. I’ll wait for the written opinion.

[Shamie Ervin iv]

That cocky little Chris Smith ought to be slapped right out of office, like we did one of our DA's a few years ago who got too big for his britches and used his office to bully innocent people. Smith has streisanded himself so now he'd better duck and cover. LOL.

We had a US Attorney here back in the 80's who threw his weight around and perverted the course of justice a few times too often. The word got around and Sen. Jesse Helms who had befriended this coxcomb at his Raleigh church refused to put his name in the hat again when the time came for re-appointment. Now he sits on park benches in Asheville with his big belly hanging out and feeds the pigeons.