XPost: alt.journalism.newspapers, law.court.federal, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, sac.politics   
   From: yourdime@outlook.com   
      
   NEW YORK (AP) — A federal appeals court revived Sarah Palin’s libel case   
   against The New York Times on Wednesday, citing errors by a lower court   
   judge, particularly his decision to dismiss the lawsuit while a jury was   
   deliberating.   
      
   The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan wrote that Judge Jed S.   
   Rakoff’s decision in February 2022 to dismiss the lawsuit mid-   
   deliberations improperly intruded on the jury’s work.   
      
   It also found that the erroneous exclusion of evidence, an inaccurate jury   
   instruction and an erroneous response to a question from the jury tainted   
   the jury’s decision to rule against Palin. It declined, however, to grant   
   Palin’s request to force Rakoff off the case on grounds he was biased   
   against her. The 2nd Circuit said she had offered no proof.   
      
   The libel lawsuit by Palin, a onetime Republican vice presidential   
   candidate and former governor of Alaska, centered on the newspaper’s 2017   
   editorial falsely linking her campaign rhetoric to a mass shooting, which   
   Palin asserted damaged her reputation and career.   
      
   The Times acknowledged its editorial was inaccurate but said it quickly   
   corrected errors it called an “honest mistake” that were never meant to   
   harm Palin.   
      
   Shane Vogt, a lawyer for Palin, said in an email that Palin was “very   
   happy with today’s decision, which is a significant step forward in the   
   process of holding publishers accountable for content that misleads   
   readers and the public in general.”   
      
   “The truth deserves a level playing field, and Governor Palin looks   
   forward to presenting her case to a jury that is ‘provided with relevant   
   proffered evidence and properly instructed on the law,’” Vogt added,   
   quoting in part from the 2nd Circuit ruling.   
      
   Charlie Stadtlander, a spokesperson for the Times, said the decision was   
   disappointing. “We’re confident we will prevail in a retrial,” he said in   
   an email.   
      
   The 2nd Circuit, in a ruling written by Judge John M. Walker Jr., reversed   
   the jury verdict, along with Rakoff’s decision to dismiss the lawsuit   
   while jurors were deliberating.   
      
   Despite his ruling, Rakoff let jurors finish deliberating and render their   
   verdict, which went against Palin.   
      
   The appeals court noted that Rakoff’s ruling made credibility   
   determinations, weighed evidence, and ignored facts or inferences that a   
   reasonable juror could plausibly find supported Palin’s case.   
      
   It also described how “push notifications” that reached the cellphones of   
   jurors “came as an unfortunate surprise to the district judge.” The 2nd   
   Circuit said it was not enough that the judge’s law clerk was assured by   
   jurors that Rakoff’s ruling had not affected their deliberations.   
      
   “Given a judge’s special position of influence with a jury, we think a   
   jury’s verdict reached with the knowledge of the judge’s already-announced   
   disposition of the case will rarely be untainted, no matter what the   
   jurors say upon subsequent inquiry,” the appeals court said.   
      
   In its ruling Wednesday, the 2nd Circuit said it was granting a new trial   
   because of various trial errors and because Rakoff’s mid-deliberations   
   ruling against Palin, which might have reached jurors through alerts   
   delivered to cell phones, “impugn the reliability of that verdict.”   
      
   “The jury is sacrosanct in our legal system, and we have a duty to protect   
   its constitutional role, both by ensuring that the jury’s role is not   
   usurped by judges and by making certain that juries are provided with   
   relevant proffered evidence and properly instructed on the law,” the   
   appeals court said.   
      
   https://apnews.com/article/sarah-palin-times-libel-   
   b1e9e9ae91b1a52f28f03cab38ac3e7e   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)