Friday, March 29, 2024

A Bump in the Road for Joy Reid :( Defamation Lawsuit Revived Over Social Media Posts

JOY REID
Joy Reid/Getty Images

*An appellate court has revived libel claims from a Trump supporter named Roslyn La Liberte against MSNBC’s Joy Reid

La Liberte claims Reid used “her substantial social media presence, fame, and reputation as a hard-hitting journalist” to publish “fake news” to her followers that La Liberte “screamed abhorrent racial slurs” at a 14-year-old boy, New York Post reports. 

Back in June 2018, activist Alan Vargas tweeted a photo of La Liberte in a “Make America Great Again” hat seemingly yelling at a high school student during a City Council meeting in Simi Valley, California. She was among a crowd that was said to have called the teen a “dirty Mexican” and told him “You are going to be the first deported,” Vargas’ tweet claimed. He wrote in the post, “Spread this far and wide.”

Reid retweeted the message and La Liberte responded by hitting her with a defamation lawsuit. The woman believes Reid’s comments “were also born out of her personal animus and dislike of President Donald Trump, the Republican Party, and supporters of each, including those wearing MAGA hats.”

As a result of Reid’s statements, La Liberte said she received “hundreds if not thousands of hate messages” and death threats.

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Roslyn La Liberte
Roslyn La Liberte

Reid tweeted an apology to La Liberte and the teenager, saying, “It appears I got this wrong.” But that didn’t stop the woman from filing a lawsuit against Reid for defamation and requesting punitive damages.

She also petitioned to have the suit thrown out of court and for La Liberte to pay her attorney’s bill.

Here’s more from THR:

Last September, Reid prevailed at a district court. The judge ruled that La Liberte was a limited purpose public figure because she had injected herself into public controversy around immigration. And, according to the judge, La Liberte couldn’t demonstrate that Reid acted with actual malice when she had wrongfully written that the woman had screamed “dirty Mexican.” 

Since public figures must demonstrate malice in order to prevail on libel claims, La Liberte’s suit had failed.

On appeal, La Liberte argued that the judge had wrongfully dismissed the suit and shifted attorney fees to the winner under California’s anti-SLAPP statute. That’s a law intended to deter frivolous litigation aimed at usurping First Amendment activity. 

On July 15, the Second Circuit — which covers New York — decided that anti-SLAPP doesn’t apply in federal court.

“Reid urges us to follow the Ninth Circuit, which holds that California’s anti-SLAPP statute and the Federal Rules can exist side by side … without conflict,” writes Judge Dennis Jacobs. “We disagree.”

The appellate court says Reid isn’t protected by CDA 230.

The judge said Reid “went way beyond her earlier retweet … in ways that intensified and specified the vile conduct that she was attributing to La Liberte. She accordingly stands liable for any defamatory content.”

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