New York Times v. Sullivan: List 3

On March 29, 1960, The New York Times ran an ad to defend Martin Luther King Jr. from an Alabama perjury indictment. To solicit funds, the ad included details of police actions against participants in a civil rights demonstration. In response, Montgomery Commissioner L.B. Sullivan filed a libel suit. The Supreme Court ruled that, unless the public figure can prove actual malice, the First Amendment protects the freedom of the press. The unanimous opinion was written by Justice William Brennan. Read the full text here.

This list covers vocabulary in paragraphs 37-59 of the opinion.
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. censorship
    banning or deleting any information of value to the enemy
    The bookseller's self-censorship, compelled by the State, would be a censorship affecting the whole public...
  2. adduce
    advance evidence for
    Even courts accepting this defense as an adequate safeguard have recognized the difficulties of adducing legal proofs that the alleged libel was true in all its factual particulars.
  3. malice
    the desire to see others suffer
    The constitutional guarantees require, we think, a federal rule that prohibits a public official from recovering damages for a defamatory falsehood relating to his official conduct unless he proves that the statement was made with "actual malice"—that is, with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.
  4. inconvenience
    an unwanted discomfort
    The importance to the state and to society of such discussions is so vast, and the advantages derived are so great, that they more than counterbalance the inconvenience of private persons whose conduct may be involved, and occasional injury to the reputations of individuals must yield to the public welfare, although at times such injury may be great.
  5. defame
    charge falsely or with malicious intent
    In such a case the occasion gives rise to a privilege, qualified to this extent: any one claiming to be defamed by the communication must show actual malice or go remediless.
  6. preference
    a predisposition in favor of something
    It would give public servants an unjustified preference over the public they serve, if critics of official conduct did not have a fair equivalent of the immunity granted to the officials themselves.
  7. remand
    refer a matter or legal case back to another authority
    Because of this uncertainty, the judgment must be reversed and the case remanded.
  8. reckless
    marked by defiant disregard for danger or consequences
    Even assuming that they could constitutionally be found to have authorized the use of their names on the advertisement, there was no evidence whatever that they were aware of any erroneous statements or were in any way reckless in that regard. The judgment against them is thus without constitutional support.
  9. cavalier
    showing a lack of concern or seriousness
    The statement by the Times' Secretary that, apart from the padlocking allegation...affords no constitutional warrant for the Alabama Supreme Court's conclusion that it was a cavalier ignoring of the falsity of the advertisement [from which] the jury could not have but been impressed with the bad faith of The Times, and its maliciousness inferable therefrom.
  10. impeach
    challenge the honesty or veracity of
    The statement does not indicate malice at the time of the publication; even if the advertisement was not "substantially correct"—although respondent's own proofs tend to show that it was—that opinion was at least a reasonable one, and there was no evidence to impeach the witness' good faith in holding it.
  11. retract
    formally reject or disavow
    The Times' failure to retract upon respondent's demand, although it later retracted upon the demand of Governor Patterson, is likewise not adequate evidence of malice for constitutional purposes.
  12. negligence
    failure to act with the prudence of a reasonable person
    We think the evidence against the Times supports, at most, a finding of negligence in failing to discover the misstatements, and is constitutionally insufficient to show the recklessness that is required for a finding of actual malice.
  13. transmute
    change or alter in form, appearance, or nature
    The present proposition would sidestep this obstacle by transmuting criticism of government, however impersonal it may seem on its face, into personal criticism, and hence potential libel, of the officials of whom the government is composed.
  14. critic
    anyone who expresses a reasoned judgment of something
    Raising as it does the possibility that a good faith critic of government will be penalized for his criticism, the proposition relied on by the Alabama courts strikes at the very center of the constitutionally protected area of free expression.
  15. penalize
    inflict punishment on
    Raising as it does the possibility that a good faith critic of government will be penalized for his criticism, the proposition relied on by the Alabama courts strikes at the very center of the constitutionally protected area of free expression.
Created on Wed Jun 04 12:42:34 EDT 2025 (updated Wed Jun 04 14:24:36 EDT 2025)

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