Business Law

In 1960 an advertisement was run by the New York Times that was paid for by civil rights activists. The ad criticized the department of the police openly in the city of Montgomery for how it treated protestors of civil rights. The descriptions in the advertisement were mostly accurate but there were some false statements. L.B Sullivan the police commissioner was offended and sued New York Times in Alabama court. Even though Sullivan's name was not mentioned in the article he still went ahead to sue the newspaper. The argument held by Sullivan was that the advertisement had ruined his reputation and libeling him at the same time. He demanded that the retraction of the paper (Hall, & Urofsky, 2011).

The issue in this case was freedom of press that is whether the first amendment has limits to the power of the state to give libel damages that...
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