The Volokh Conspiracy

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Free Speech

Saying Co-Worker "Looked Like a Homeless Prostitute" Is Opinion, Can't Be Defamation

|The Volokh Conspiracy |


So Magistrate Judge Maria Aguilera (D. Ariz.) correctly concluded today in Sanchez v. Flores:

[A]s alleged, the statement was nonactionable hyperbole. The words "looked like" in particular "tend to negate the implication that [the statement] convey[ed] objective facts."

Eugene Volokh is the Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, and the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA School of Law. Naturally, his posts here (like the opinions of the other bloggers) are his own, and not endorsed by any institution. He is also the co-host of the Free Speech Unmuted podcast.