This paper will discuss recent changes in American libel law. Specifically, the text will analyze some of the more important U.S. Supreme Court cases which affected libel cases. Defamation is a concept which originated in the English common law. The First Amendment did not begin to influence defamation laws in the United States until very recently (Franklin, 1992, p. 74). Since cases like the New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, the U.S. Supreme Court has made a continued effort to determine the proper balance between the right of free communication and the right to protect reputation.
In New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, a police commissioner demanded a retraction against the New York Times newspaper for an advertisement that claimed the police tear-gassed an Alabama state college campus. The police were called after a group of student protesters sang "My Country 'Tis of Thee" on the campus steps. Commissioner Sullivan sued because he believed the reference to the "police" included him since he supervised the police in Alabama (Franklin, 1982, p. 109).
Sullivan won $500,000 in damages from the Alabama Supreme Court. However, the U.S. Supreme Court reversed this decision, holding that the plaintiff Sullivan had to prove that the New York Times had knowledge that the ad was false. This landmark opinion changed libel law in the United States because, after Justice Brennan's opinion of the Court in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, actual malice had to be demonstrated if a public official wanted to win damages against critics of his or her official conduct. Brennan said that, for the newspaper to have been found liable, Sullivan would have had to prove that the Times behaved recklessly and knowingly printed a lie. The plaintiff simply could not sustain that type of a burden of proof, and the facts of the case did not support that conclusion (Franklin, 1982, pp. 110-117).
Thus, the New York Times Co. v. Sullivan case showed t...