Court: Palin May Pursue Defamation Case Against NYT

Reuters reports:

A federal appeals court revived former U.S. vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin’s defamation lawsuit against the New York Times, over an editorial that she said maliciously linked her to the 2011 mass shooting that seriously wounded Representative Gabrielle Giffords.

In a 3-0 decision on Tuesday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the lower court judge who dismissed Palin’s complaint erred by first hearing testimony from the Times’ editorial page editor.

Circuit Judge John Walker also said Palin had plausibly alleged that the Times defamed her, though she still bore the “high” burden of showing on the merits that the newspaper acted with “actual malice” toward her.

The Times later corrected an editorial which had speculated that Palin’s infamous “crosshairs” ad may have spurred the attack on Giffords, saying that the map only reflected congressional districts.