New York

Articles published by the New York Daily News calling a former school principal a “firebrand” and a “principal of hate” are not defamatory because the statements are opinions, a New York Supreme Court judge ruled last week. The Supreme Court is the trial-level court in New York.

A New York trial court judge dismissed a defamation claim brought by a convicted sex offender against a local newspaper that reported on his arrest and guilty plea.

Queens County Judge Sidney F. Strauss concluded this week that Wave Publishing Co., publishers of the weekly newspaper The Wave in Rockaway Beach, were protected by the state’s fair report privilege for a 2008 story concerning the criminal charges brought by local authorities against Jacek Marczewski, the custodian of a synagogue in Far Rockaway, Queens.

A federal judge ruled that a New York City police officer was wrong when he demanded identification from two men photographing a vintage train because the relevant law regarding identification was unconstitutionally vague.

Online news aggregation websites that compile and resell news stories without the publisher's permission are committing copyright infringement and are not protected under the fair use doctrine, a New York judge ruled.

A New York judge has signed a subpoena requiring a Fox News reporter to testify in Colorado about who gave her confidential information about a notebook James Holmes sent to his psychiatrist days before he allegedly opened fire on a crowded movie theater last July, killing 12 people.

A New York appellate panel upheld the dismissal of a defamation suit filed by a journalist against a prominent AIDS activist who criticized her articles about the disease.

A New York judge dismissed a portion of a libel suit against ESPN because the statements in question were reported from court documents and therefore protected under the state's fair report privilege.

New York’s sweeping new gun control bill, signed into law on Tuesday, will allow gun owners to keep the fact that they own a weapon private, changing the previous version of the law that required such records to be public.

A man accused of throwing a severed horse head in a local politician's pool does not have to prove monetary loss to pursue a defamation lawsuit against his online accusers, an appellate court in New York ruled.

A New York judge this week dismissed a libel lawsuit by a Brooklyn judge against the New York Daily News and one of its former columnists.