People v. Croswell
| People v. Croswell | |
|---|---|
| Court | Supreme Court of New York |
| Full case name | The People of the State of New York v. Harry Croswell |
| Decided | February 13, 1804 |
| Citation(s) | 3 Johns. Cas. 337 N.Y. 1804 |
| Case opinions | |
| Judges deadlocked over whether truth of statements could be introduced by libel defendants | |
| Keywords | |
| Defamation | |
The People of the State of New York v. Harry Croswell (3 Johns. Cas. 337 N.Y. 1804), commonly known and cited as People v. Croswell, is an important case in the evolution of United States defamation law. It was a criminal libel case brought against a Federalist journalist named Harry Croswell for his statements about a number of public officials, including then-President Thomas Jefferson.
Croswell was initially convicted in Columbia County court, where the jury was instructed to consider only the question of fact before them, as to whether Croswell had been the one to publish the statements at issue under a pseudonym. He appealed to the Supreme Court of New York, then the state's highest court, for a new trial on several issues including those instructions. In a famous and lengthy argument on Croswell's behalf, Alexander Hamilton tried to convince the judges that truthful statements should not be considered defamatory, regardless of what they concerned.
The judges deadlocked and Croswell's conviction stood, although he was never sentenced or retried. The following year the issue became legally moot as the New York State Legislature wrote Hamilton's argument into the state's libel law, breaking with English precedent under which the truthfulness of the statements alone is not a defense. Other states and the federal government followed suit. Since then it has been a cornerstone of American law on the subject that truthful statements are not actionable.
In 1801 the 22-year-old Harry Croswell, originally from West Hartford, Connecticut, moved across the Hudson River from Catskill, New York, where he had learned the trade from his brother Mackay Croswell to the growing port city of Hudson. A strong sympathizer with the Federalist Party of then-president John Adams, he took a job writing for the Balance and Columbian Repository, a newspaper of similar political leanings.
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