The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals gave former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin another trial in her pursuit to sue the New York Times for defamation in connection to an article that linked Palin with the 2011 shooting of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.
Palin’s political action committee had published a graphic in 2010 with crosshairs over Democratic congressional districts, and a 2017 New York Times editorial connected it with Gifford’s brush with death.
The outlet said it “swiftly” corrected and apologized for the article, but Palin filed a lawsuit against the newspaper, arguing it damaged her reputation. The trial began, with Judge Jed Rakoff dismissing the case before the federal jury in New York City had delivered a verdict. While the jury was ultimately allowed to return a verdict in February 2022 (that the newspaper was not liable), Palin argued the jury may have been swayed by the judge’s dismissal.
The former vice presidential candidate appealed, also arguing that the judge had wrongly left out evidence. On Wednesday, a federal appeals court found several issues with the first trial and ordered a new one to take place.
“Unfortunately, several major issues at trial — specifically, the erroneous exclusion of evidence, an inaccurate jury instruction, a legally erroneous response to a mid-deliberation jury question, and jurors learning during deliberations of the district court’s Rule 50 dismissal ruling — impugn the reliability of that verdict,” the opinion said.
In its Wednesday opinion, the appeals court agreed with Palin that Rakoff “erroneously disregarded or discredited her evidence of actual malice and improperly substituted its own judgment for that of the jury.”
Palin’s lawyer, Shane Vogt, said in a statement that Palin was “very happy” with the decision:
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“Governor Palin is very happy with today’s decision, which is a significant step forward in the process of holding publishers accountable for content that misleads readers and the public in general. The truth deserves a level playing field, and Governor Palin looks forward to presenting her case to a jury that is ‘provided with relevant proffered evidence and properly instructed on the law’ as set forth in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals’ opinion.”
The New York Times said in a statement Wednesday, “This decision is disappointing. We’re confident we will prevail in a retrial.”