A6 TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2019 WSCE LATIMES.COM
THE NATION
WASHINGTON — The
Supreme Court refused on
Monday to shield two con-
servative writers from being
sued for defamation by a cli-
mate change expert whom
they accused of having “mo-
lested and tortured data in
the service of politicized sci-
ence.”
Over a dissent by Justice
Samuel A. Alito Jr., the high
court cleared the way for
Penn State professor
Michael Mann to sue the Na-
tional Review and the con-
servative Competitive En-
terprise Institute for having
compared him to former
Penn State football coach
Jerry Sandusky, who was
imprisoned for sexual abuse.
Both had been investigated
by the university.
In his 2012 article, col-
umnist Mark Steyn said that
in Mann’s case, as with San-
dusky and football legend
Joe Paterno, who was also
involved in the sex-abuse
scandal, Penn State “de-
clined to find one of its star
names guilty of any wrong-
doing.” His comment re-
peated the words of an on-
line columnist at the Com-
petitive Enterprise Institute
who first made the compari-
son between Mann and San-
dusky.
The case involves a hotly
disputed question that has
split lower courts: When can
statements of opinion form
the basis of a libel suit? Ordi-
narily, the high court has
ruled, a person can’t be sued
for expressing an opinion.
But when a statement mixes
opinion with a claim about
facts — in this case, the claim
that Mann had misused
data — courts have strug-
gled to decide whether law-
suits are valid.
Lawyers for the institute
and the National Review, a
conservative publication
founded in 1955 by the late
William F. Buckley, urged the
court to block the suit on 1st
Amendment grounds. They
argued that freedom of
speech and the press re-
quires shielding people who
comment on matters of
great public controversy,
such as climate change.
Standing aside in this
case, they said, “would be to
insert courts and juries into
every hot-button politicaland scientific dispute.”
But lawyers for Mann ar-
gued the disputed com-
ments crossed the line from
protected opinion to a de-
famatory accusation that
Mann engaged in “data ma-
nipulation” and “scientific
misconduct.”
An appeals court for the
District of Columbia had re-
fused to block the suit.
The high court’s action
clears the way for the suits to
go to trial. The justices, how-
ever, could still intervene lat-
er to review the verdict.
In the past, President
Trump, among others, has
called for making it easier tosue the press for libel. Jus-
tice Clarence Thomas has
also suggested the court
should reconsider the land-
mark 1964 decision in New
York Times vs. Sullivan,
which shields the press from
being sued by public officials
except when their reports
reflect a “reckless disregard
for the truth.”
Thomas did not register
a dissent Monday in the
cases of National Review vs.
Mann or CEI vs. Mann.
Alito, however, said the
court should have heard the
cases.
They “present questions
that go to the very heart ofthe constitutional guaran-
tee of freedom of speech
and freedom of the press:
the protection afforded to
journalists and others who
use harsh language in criti-
cizing opposing advocacy on
one of the most important
public issues of the day,” he
wrote.
“Climate change has
staked a place at the very
center of his nation’s public
discourse,” he added. “The
core purpose of the constitu-
tional protection of freedom
of expression is to ensure
that that all opinions on
such issues have a chance to
be heard and considered.”Scientist likened to Sandusky can sue
The climate change
expert was accused in
an article of having
‘molested’ data.
By David G. Savage
THE SUPREME COURTcleared the way for professor Michael Mann from Penn State, above, to sue the National Review and the Com-
petitive Enterprise Institute in a libel case over comparing him to convicted child molester Jerry Sandusky, once a Penn State coach.Gene J. PuskarAssociated PressNational Review
and other lawyers
said standing
aside in this case
‘would be to
insert courts and
juries into every
hot-button
political and
scientific dispute.’
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