Joe.My.God. LGBT News
Courthouse News reports:
A federal judge ruled Wednesday that a writer who claimed to be defamed by a tweet allegedly showing him making a white power hand gesture failed to show the Fusion journalist who posted the image did so with actual malice.
On April 28, 2017, Fusion journalist Emma Roller posted a tweet that said “Just two people doing a white power hand gesture in the White House” alongside an image showing the plaintiff writer, Cassandra Fairbanks, standing beside alt-right figure Mike Cernovich and making an “okay” gesture.
Fairbanks sued Roller on June 1, 2017, claiming the tweet disrupted her life, soured her professional opportunities and provoked threats of violence against her. But the public debate about what the gesture meant at the time Roller sent out the tweet seemed to factor into how the case played out.
In addition to writing for Gateway Pundit, Fairbanks has appeared on InfoWars and the Proud Boys channel. She used to write for Russia’s Sputnik News.
Federal Judge not only dismissed the Cassandra Fairbanks/Robert Barnes lawsuit against Emma Roller, but called Fairbanks a troll in the very first line of the Opinion. Cc: @BradMossEsq https://t.co/628HRL5FFe pic.twitter.com/kuOLu7VozL
— Scott Rome (@Scott_H_Rome) June 6, 2018
Judge concluded the plaintiff failed to allege that Roller acted with “actual malice.”
“But in America, the First Amendment’s commitment to a public debate … offers broad protections to those who make these gestures and those who accuse public figures of making them.”
— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) June 6, 2018
@POTUS wants to assure Cassandra Fairbanks & Mike Cernovich that making a White Supremacist hand sign is “fantastic” because #WhiteHouse pic.twitter.com/9d6T6Y83u4
— WH Customer Service (@POTUS_CustServ) April 30, 2017