“Open & Shut”

“You can libel public figures at will so long as somebody told you something, some reliable person told you the lie that you then publicized to the whole world — that’s what New York Times v. Sullivan says.”

– Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said in a December interview on “Charlie Rose” about the landmark 1964 Supreme Court decision in New York Times v. Sullivan.

“I think video games is a bigger problem than guns, because video games affect people. But the First Amendment limits what we can do about video games and the Second Amendment to the Constitution limits what we can do about guns.”

– Rep. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) speaking about the constitutional limits to dealing with both gun control and video game violence.

“Anyone who says ‘video games are more dangerous than guns’ is the stupidest, dumbest, most inane, gasbag, dirty, rotten, money-grubbing, jackass vermin who has ever lived. … They are profiting off of the Second Amendment at the cost of the First Amendment.”

– Las Vegas Review-Journal entertainment and video game columnist Doug Elfman, responding to comments made by Rep. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) suggesting that video games are a more dangerous societal problem than guns.

“The First Amendment prevailed today. And you know, as unpopular as my speech is at times, it’s necessary. It’s necessary for me, it’s necessary for you guys. You guys right here that are covering me right now, if this would have gone through, there would have been a slippery slope.”

 – Radio personality Todd Alan Clem, a.k.a. “Bubba the Love Sponge,” speaking to reporters after winning a defamation suit against radio rival Todd “MJ Kelli” Schnitt in Tampa.

“Referring to someone as ‘a real tool’ falls into the category of pure opinion because the term ‘real tool’ cannot be reasonably interpreted as stating a fact and it cannot be proven true or false.”

-Minnesota Supreme Court Justice Alan Page, in his written opinion on whether a man’s negative online reviews could be considered defamation.

“My position is simple: I have a right to be disliked, but I also have a right to take pictures.”

– Celebrity photographer Steve Sands to The New York Times on making The New York Press’ annual blacklist of the 50 Most Loathsome New Yorkers.

“We avow the First Amendment. We stand with that and say that people have a right to have a gun to protect themselves in their homes and their jobs, where, and that they — and the workplace and that they, for recreation and hunting and the rest. So we’re not questioning their right to do that.”

-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Cali.) confuses the First Amendment and the Second Amendment in an interview on Fox News Sunday.