The Civil Rights History of New York Times v. Sullivan

<p>Every law student learns about <em>New York Times Co. v. Sullivan </em>in their Constitutional Law course. In 1964, the Supreme Court revised First Amendment law by holding that a public officialmust show “actual malice” in order to prevail on a libel claim—that is, the public official must show that a defamatory statement was false and that the speaker made the statement knowing that it was false or “with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.”</p><p>But not every student knows the fascinating civil rights history behind this seminal case. Professor Samantha Barbas recounts that history in <a href="https://samanthabarbas.com/actual-malice/" target="_blank"><em>Actual Malice: Civil Rights and Freedom of the Press in New York Times v. Sullivan</em></a>, published in 2023. In this podcast with Associate Dean Rodger Citron, Barbas discusses the research that inspired her to write the book, the historical context in which <em>Sullivan</em> and other libel cases were litigated, and Justice William Brennan’s role in writing the opinion for a unanimous court. </p>