Libel

A series of newspaper articles and an editorial about a retired judge’s performance of his duties did not defame the former public official, the Virgin Islands Supreme Court ruled earlier this week.

The opinion by the court, which was established relatively recently in 2004, provides strong precedent for causes of action stemming from First Amendment-protected activities in the U.S. territory.

Claims that the Boston Herald further defamed a famous musician in its coverage of his libel suit against the newspaper were dismissed Wednesday by a Massachusetts judge, who ruled that the rocker failed to show that the reports were inaccurate, unfair or malicious.

The initial claim against the Herald filed by Tom Scholz, the founder of the rock band Boston, is still pending.

Washington Redskins owner Dan Snyder has dropped his $2 million libel and defamation lawsuit against Washington City Paper, which would have tested the district's new anti-SLAPP legislation.

"We prefer to focus on the coming football season and the business at hand," according to a team statement. Snyder announced his decision Saturday, on the eve of his team's season-opening matchup with the New York Giants.

A Minneapolis blogger will continue his fight to overturn a jury's verdict that he should pay $60,000 to a former university employee whom he wrote about scathingly --- but truthfully --- in a blog post that led to the employee's termination the next day.

An Oregon blogger’s disparaging “almost stream of consciousness-like” statements about the trustee in a bankruptcy case are protected opinion under the First Amendment, a federal judge in Portland recently ruled.

The opinion in Obsidian Finance Group v. Cox highlights the importance of courts’ consideration of the “looser, more relaxed communication style” of the Internet in their evaluations of allegedly defamatory online communications.

A Nashville, Tenn., woman can pursue her defamation lawsuit stemming from a prison reality show that featured footage unknowingly taken of the woman while she visited her husband in prison, a federal judge ruled last week.

A Baltimore city councilwoman withdrew her libel suit against a local blogger on Monday after she said it became clear she could not win.