New York Times Company v. Sullivan
Significant Case
The Supreme Court decision that arose during the Civil Rights Movement and protected freedom of the press
Decision
The Court issued a unanimous decision in favor of New York Times Company. tangandewa
- Majority
- Concurring
- Dissenting
- Recusal
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Warren
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Black
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Douglas
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Clark
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Harlan II
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Brennan
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Stewart
-
White
-
Goldberg
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Majority Opinion
William J. Brennan Jr.Read More Close“A state cannot, under the First and Fourteenth Amendments, award damages to a public official for defamatory falsehood relating to his official conduct unless he proves ‘actual malice’ — that the statement was made with knowledge of its falsity or with reckless disregard of whether it was true or false.”
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Concurring Opinion
Hugo L. BlackRead More Close“Malice,’ even as defined by the Court, is an elusive, abstract concept, hard to prove and hard to disprove…Unlike the Court, therefore, I vote to reverse exclusively on the ground that the Times and the individual defendants had an absolute, unconditional constitutional right to publish in the Times advertisement their criticisms of the Montgomery agencies and officials.”
Discussion Questions
- How did civil rights activists and political leaders challenge segregation during the 1950s and 1960s?
- Why was Martin Luther King Jr. arrested for tax fraud if there was no evidence?
- How did the Sullivan case impact the Civil Rights Movement?
- How did the Sullivan case protect freedom of the press?
- New York Times Co. v. Sullivan has been described as “arguably the most important First Amendment case in history.” Why is Sullivan so important for free press?
Sources
Special thanks to scholar Helen Knowles-Gardener for her review, feedback, and additional information.
Barbas, Samantha. Actual Malice: Civil Rights and Freedom of the Press in New York Times v. Sullivan. Oakland, CA: University of California Press, 2023.
Brown, Stephen P. Alabama Justice: The Cases that Changed a Nation. Tuscaloosa, AL: The University of Alabama Press, 2020.
Goodale, James C. Is the Public ‘Getting Even’ with Press in Libel Cases? N.Y.L.J., Aug. 11, 1982.
Knowles, Helen J and Steven B. Lichtman. “Introduction: Oh What a Tangled Web They Weave.” Judging Free Speech: First Amendment Jurisprudence of US Supreme Court Justices. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015.
Powe Jr., Lucas A. The Warren Court and American Politics. Cambridge, MA: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2000.
Featured image: New York Times Advertisement; 3/29/1960; Records of District Courts of the United States, DocsTeach, National Archives Catalog. https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/new-york-times-advertisement.