Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin gets another crack at The New York Times as the retrial of her defamation lawsuit is set to begin in a Manhattan federal court on Monday.
A federal appeals court in August ordered a new trial after Palin lost the first one in 2022 against the newspaper and former editorial page editor James Bennet. The appeals court cited problematic rulings by the presiding judge, Jed Rakoff, who is set to preside over the retrial, too.
Palin first filed the lawsuit in 2017 in response to a Times editorial that the former vice-presidential nominee said defamed her.
“This is truly the case that will not die,” Sonja West, a University of Georgia law professor, told The Wall Street Journal. “Every time it rises from the ashes, the risk to the First Amendment’s protections for the press rises back with it.”
Palin accused the Times and Bennet of suggesting in an editorial about gun violence that an ad of Palin’s had incited a 2011 shooting at a political event in Arizona that severely wounded former Rep. Gabby Giffords and killed six others. Palin’s political action committee published a map with crosshairs over several congressional districts controlled by Democrats, including that of Gifford’s.
“The link to political incitement was clear,” the original version of the Times’ editorial read, inserted by Bennet.
The Times issued corrections and apologies across its platforms that said there was no link between the ad and the shooting. Palin said the damage had been done and filed suit.
While jurors deliberated in the first trial, Rakoff announced his intent to throw out the lawsuit regardless of the jury’s verdict. Some jurors later said they saw Rakoff’s announcement. The Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals called Rakoff’s announcement improper in ordering the retrial, among other issues with his evidentiary rulings.
The trial is expected to last five days and Palin is expected to testfiy.
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