Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc.
| Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. | |
|---|---|
|
|
| Argued November 14, 1973 Decided June 25, 1974 |
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| Full case name | Elmer Gertz v. Robert Welch, Incorporated |
| Citations | 418 U.S. 323 (more)
94 S. Ct. 2997; 41 L. Ed. 2d 789; 1974 U.S. LEXIS 88; 1 Media L. Rep. 1633
|
| Prior history | Motion to dismiss denied, 306 F. Supp. 310 (N.D. Ill. 1969); judgment for plaintiff, N.D. Ill.; judgment set aside, judgment for defendant, 322 F. Supp. 997 (N.D. Ill. 1970); affirmed, 471 F.2d 801 (7th Cir. 1972); rehearing denied, 7th Circuit, 9-7-72; cert. granted, 410 U.S. 925 (1973) |
| Subsequent history | Retrial on remand, judgment for plaintiff, N.D. Ill.; affirmed, 680 F.2d 527 (7th Cir. 1982); certiorari denied, 459 U.S. 1226 (1983) |
| Holding | |
| The First Amendment permits states to formulate their own standards of libel for defamatory statements made about private figures, as long as liability is not imposed without fault. Seventh Circuit reversed. | |
| Court membership | |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Powell, joined by Stewart, Marshall, Blackmun, Rehnquist |
| Concurrence | Blackmun |
| Dissent | Burger |
| Dissent | Brennan |
| Dissent | Douglas |
| Dissent | White |
| Laws applied | |
| U.S. Const. amend. I | |
Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc., 418 U.S. 323 (1974), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States established the standard of First Amendment protection against defamation claims brought by private individuals. The Court held that, so long as they do not impose liability without fault, states are free to establish their own standards of liability for defamatory statements made about private individuals. However, the Court also ruled that if the state standard is lower than actual malice, the standard applying to public figures, then only actual damages may be awarded.
The consequence is that strict liability for defamation is unconstitutional in the United States; the plaintiff must be able to show that the defendant acted negligently or with an even higher level of mens rea. In many other common law countries, strict liability for defamation is still the rule.
In 1968, a Chicago police officer, Richard Nuccio, shot and killed a young man (Ronald Nelson). After the officer was convicted of second-degree murder, the victim's family retained a lawyer, Elmer Gertz, to represent them in civil litigation against the officer.
A year later, American Opinion, a publication of the John Birch Society, ran a series of articles falsely alleging that the existence of a Communist conspiracy to discredit local police agencies and thus facilitate their replacement by a national police force that could more effectively implement the dictatorship they planned to impose on the country. One of those touched on the Nuccio case, claiming that the officer had been framed at his criminal trial and making strong allegations about Gertz. It claimed that he had orchestrated Nuccio's conviction and that he was a member of various communist front organizations. It further implied that he had a lengthy criminal record himself and used various anti-communist terms of abuse ("Leninist", "Communist-fronter") to describe him.
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