Berisha v. Lawson

• Citation: 141 S.Ct. 2424 (Mem)
• Decision Date: 02 July 2021
• Docket Number: No. 20-1063,20-1063
• Parties: Shkelzen BERISHA v. Guy LAWSON, et al.
• Court: United States Supreme Court

141 S.Ct. 2424 (Mem)

Shkelzen BERISHA

v.Guy LAWSON, et al.

No. 20-1063

Supreme Court of the United States.

Decided July 2, 2021

The petition for a writ of certiorari is denied.

Justice THOMAS, dissenting from the denial of certiorari.

In 2015, Guy Lawson published a book detailing the "true story" of how three Miami youngsters became international arms dealers. 973 F.3d 1304, 1306 (CA11 2020). A central plot point involves the protagonists’ travels to Albania and subsequent run-ins with the "Albanian mafia," a key figure of which, the book claims, is petitioner Shkelzen Berisha. The book performed well, and Lawson eventually sold the movie rights to Warner Bros., which made the feature film War Dogs.

Unhappy with his portrayal, Berisha sued Lawson for defamation under Florida law. According to Berisha, he is not associated with the Albanian mafia—or any dangerous group—and Lawson recklessly relied on flimsy sources to contend that he was.

The District Court granted summary judgment in favor of Lawson. Setting aside questions of truth or falsity, the court simply asked whether Berisha is a "public figure." Why? Because under this Court's First Amendment jurisprudence, public figures cannot establish libel without proving by clear and convincing evidence that the defendant acted with " ‘actual malice’ "—that is with knowledge that the published material "was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false." New York Times Co. v. Sullivan , 376 U.S. 254, 280, 84 S.Ct. 710, 11 L.Ed.2d 686 (1964) ; accord, Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. , 418 U.S. 323, 334–335, 342, 94 S.Ct. 2997, 41 L.Ed.2d 789 (1974) ; Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts , 388 U.S. 130, 155, 87 S.Ct. 1975, 18 L.Ed.2d 1094 (1967). After concluding that Berisha is a public figure (or at least is one for purposes of Albanian weapons-trafficking stories), the court found that he had not satisfied this high standard. The Eleventh Circuit affirmed.

Berisha now asks this Court to reconsider the "actual malice" requirement as it applies to public figures. As I explained recently, we should. See McKee v. Cosby , 586 U. S. ––––, ––––, 139 S.Ct. 675, 675, 203 L.Ed.2d 247 (2019) (opinion concurring in denial of certiorari).

This Court's pronouncement that the First Amendment requires public figures to establish actual malice bears "no relation to the text, history, or structure of the Constitution." Tah v. Global Witness Publishing, Inc. , 991 F.3d 231, 251 (CADC 2021) (Silberman, J., dissenting) (emphasis deleted). In fact, the opposite rule historically prevailed: "[T]he common law deemed libels against public figures to be ... more serious and injurious than ordinary libels." McKee , 586 U. S., at ––––, 139 S.Ct. at 679 (opinion of THOMAS, J.).

The Court provided scant explanation for the decision to erect a new hurdle for public-figure plaintiffs so long after the First Amendment's ratification. In Gertz , for example, the Court reasoned that public figures are fair targets because "they invite attention and comment." 418 U.S. at 345, 94 S.Ct. 2997. That is, "public officials and public figures have voluntarily exposed themselves to increased risk of injury from defamatory falsehood." Ibid. But it is unclear why exposing oneself to an increased risk of becoming a victim necessarily means forfeiting the remedies legislatures put in place for such victims. And, even assuming that it is sometimes fair to blame the victim, it is less clear why the rule still applies when the public figure "has not voluntarily sought attention." 378 F.Supp.3d 1145, 1158 (SD Fla. 2018) ; see also Rosanova v. Playboy Enterprises, Inc. , 580 F.2d 859, 861 (CA5 1978) ("It is no answer to the assertion that one is a public figure to say, truthfully, that one doesn't choose to be").

The lack of historical support for this Court's actual-malice requirement is reason enough to take a second look at the Court's doctrine. Our reconsideration is all the more needed because of the doctrine's real-world effects. Public figure or private, lies impose real harm. Take, for instance, the shooting at a pizza shop rumored to be "the home of a Satanic child sex abuse ring involving top Democrats such as Hillary Clinton," Kennedy, ‘Pizzagate’ Gunman Sentenced to 4 Years in Prison, NPR (June 22, 2017), www.npr.org/section/thetwo-way/2017/06/22/533941689/pizzagate-gunman-sentenced-to-4-years-in-prison. Or consider how online posts falsely labeling someone as "a thief, a fraudster, and a pedophile" can spark the need to set up a home-security system. Hill, A Vast Web of Vengeance, N. Y. Times (Jan. 30, 2021), www.nytimes.com/2021/01/30/technology/change-my-google-results.html. Or think of those who have had job opportunities withdrawn over false accusations of racism or anti-Semitism. See, e.g., Wemple, Bloomberg Law Tried To Suppress Its Erroneous Labor Dept. Story, Washington Post (Sept. 6, 2019), www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2019/09/06/bloomberg-law-tried-suppress-its-erroneous-labor-dept-story. Or read about Kathrine McKee—surely this Court should not remove a woman's right to defend her reputation in court simply because she accuses a powerful man of rape. See McKee , 586 U. S., at –––– – ––––, 139 S.Ct. at 675–676 (opinion of THOMAS, J.).

The proliferation of falsehoods is, and always has been, a serious matter. Instead of continuing to insulate those who perpetrate lies from traditional remedies like libel suits, we should give them only the protection the First Amendment requires. I would grant certiorari.

Justice GORSUCH, dissenting from the denial of certiorari.

The Bill of Rights protects the freedom of the press not as a favor to a particular industry, but because democracy cannot function without the free exchange of ideas. To govern themselves wisely, the framers knew, people must be able to speak and write, question old assumptions, and offer new insights. "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free ... it expects what never was and never will be.... There is no safe deposit for [liberty] but with the people ... [w]here the press is free, and every man able to read." Letter from T. Jefferson to C. Yancey (Jan. 6, 1816), in 10 The Writings of Thomas Jefferson 4 (P. Ford ed. 1899).

Like most rights, this one comes with corresponding duties. The right to due process in court entails the duty to abide the results that process produces. The right to speak freely includes the duty to allow others to have their say. From the outset, the right to publish was no different. At the founding, the freedom of the press generally meant the government could not impose prior restraints preventing individuals from publishing what they wished. But none of that meant publishers could defame people, ruining careers or lives, without consequence. Rather, those exercising the freedom of the press had a responsibility to try to get the facts right—or, like anyone else, answer in tort for the injuries they caused.

This principle extended far back in the common law and far forward into our Nation's history. As Blackstone put it, "[e]very freeman has an undoubted right to lay what sentiments he pleases before the public," but if he publishes falsehoods "he must take the consequence of his own temerity." 4 W. Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England 151–152 (1769). Or as Justice Story later explained, "the liberty of the press do[es] not authorize malicious and injurious defamation." Dexter v. Spear , 7 F.Cas. 624 (No. 3,867) (CCDRI 1825).

This was "[t]he accepted view" in this Nation for more than two centuries. Herbert v. Lando , 441 U.S. 153, 158–159, and n. 4, 99 S.Ct. 1635, 60 L.Ed.2d 115 (1979). Accordingly, "from the very founding" the law of defamation was "almost exclusively the business of state courts and legislatures." Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. , 418 U.S. 323, 369–370, 94 S.Ct. 2997, 41 L.Ed.2d 789 (1974) (White, J., dissenting). As a rule, that meant all persons could recover damages for injuries caused by false publications about them. See Kurland, The Original Understanding of the Freedom of the Press Provision of the First Amendment, 55 Miss. L. J. 225, 234–237 (1985); J. Baker, An Introduction to English Legal History 474–475 (5th ed. 2019); Epstein, Was New York Times v. Sullivan Wrong? 53 U. Chi. L. Rev. 782, 801–802 (1986) ; Peck v. Tribune Co. , 214 U.S. 185, 189, 29 S.Ct. 554, 53 L.Ed. 960 (1909).

This changed only in 1964. In New York Times Co. v. Sullivan , 376 U.S. 254, 84 S.Ct. 710, 11 L.Ed.2d 686 (1964), this Court declared that public officials could no longer recover for defamation as everyone had for centuries. Now, public officials could prevail only by showing that an injurious falsehood was published with " ‘actual malice.’ " Id., at 279–280, 84 S.Ct. 710. Three years later, the Court extended its actual malice standard from "public officials" in government to "public figures" outside government. See generally Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts , 388 U.S. 130, 87 S.Ct. 1975, 18 L.Ed.2d 1094 (1967). Later still, the Court cast the net even wider, applying its new standard to those who have achieved "pervasive fame or notoriety" and those "limited" public figures who "voluntarily injec[t]" themselves or are "drawn into a particular public controversy." Gertz , 418 U.S., at 351, 94 S.Ct. 2997. The Court viewed these innovations "overturning 200 years of libel law" as "necessary to implement the First Amendment interest in ‘uninhibited, robust, and wide-open’ debate on public issues." Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. v. Greenmoss Builders, Inc. , 472 U.S. 749, 766, 105 S.Ct. 2939, 86 L.Ed.2d 593 (1985) (White, J., concurring in judgment).

Since 1964, however, our Nation's media landscape has shifted in ways few could have foreseen. Back then, building printing presses and amassing newspaper distribution networks demanded significant investment and expertise. See Logan, Rescuing Our Democracy by Rethinking New York Times Co. v. Sullivan , 81 Ohio St. L. J. 759, 794 (2020) (Logan). Broadcasting...