Appeals court wipes out $8.2 million award for Alabama Supreme Court justice Roy Moore
An 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel reversed the $8.2 million verdict Roy Moore won in a defamation suit against the Senate Majority PAC. The suit arose from an ad during Moore’s 2017 U.S. Senate bid that cited reporting about alleged inappropriate conduct and aired hundreds of times against Democrat Doug Jones. The court ruled Moore failed to prove actual malice, finding the ads did not present the statements as facts and included citations for viewers to read the articles, with the PAC also noting it had fact-checked the ad. SMP’s attorney called the decision a vindication, while Moore’s lawyer said the ruling was disappointing and will likely be challenged on appeal.
A federal appeals court overturned the $8.2 million in damages awarded to former Alabama Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore in 2022.
Moore launched a lawsuit in 2019 against the Senate Majority PAC over their ad that cited claims of Moore “soliciting sex from young girls” during his 2017 run for U.S. Senate.
The PAC’s ad displayed quotes from new articles about Moore’s alleged behavior, including one suggesting he approached a young girl working as “Santa’s helper.” The ads were aired over 500 times in the final weeks of the campaign, where he was facing off against Democrat Doug Jones. Jones won the election with 49.9% of the vote.
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Moore sued the PAC for defamation and “false-light invasion of privacy.” The case went to a jury, and they awarded him the $8.2 million.
However, a three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled on Friday that in fact Moore did not present clear and convincing evidence that the SMP published the ad with actual malice, a legal term that established in the 1964 case New York Times v. Sullivan.
Actual malice is the legal standard by which courts determine if someone is liable for libel. To prove actual malice, a public figure must prove that the offending party acted “with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.”
The judges said the ads did not make the assertions that Moore said they did, and included citations of the articles for viewers to read the claims themselves. Judge Elizabeth Branch also said the PAC fact-checked the ad.
SMP’s attorney Ezra Reese called the circuit court’s ruling a “total vindication of Senate Majority PAC,” according to the Associated Press.
“Senate Majority PAC ran an advertisement that cited accurate reporting from major national news outlets detailing the women who bravely came forward with allegations about Moore’s inappropriate conduct,” Reese said.
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”Alabama voters correctly decided that they did not want a disgusting creep like Roy Moore representing them in the United States Senate,” Reese continued.
Moore’s attorney Jeffrey Wittenbrink called the ruling “disappointing,” and expects to challenge it, according to Politico.
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