Know the law and sleep easy my fellow Freepers. California State Court has ruled 99.9% of what is posted here as protected speech. Here is a snippet from Barrett vs. Rosenthal:
However, as Rosenthal points out, the boundaries of permissible public discourse have evolved significantly in the last half century and as her Reply aptly summarizes it:
"Although it may have been actionable to call someone a 'hypocrite' in 1916, or an 'old witch in 1955 (Opp. 8:24-9:5), today calling someone a 'thief" and a 'liar' in a public debate has been held to be constitutionally-protected rhetorical hyperbole. (Rosenaur V. Sclzerer (2001) 88 Cal.App.4th 260, 280.)"
The conclusion that Rosenthal's statements discussed above are protected opinion or rhetoric is also supported by the forum and context in which the statements were made, that is, in the "the general cacophony of an Internet" newsgroup, "part of an on-going free-wheeling and highly animated exchange" about health issues, where the "the postings are full of hyperbole, invective, short-hand phrases and language not generally found in fact-based documents." (Global Telemedia International v. Doe 1 aka PUSTEDAGAIN4O (C.D.Cal. 2001) 132 E.Snpp.2d E26l, 1267, A269-1270 [holding critical comments about Plaintiff in Internet chat-room, including that it "screwed" investors out of their money and lied to them, to be non-actionable opinion and rhetoric. Also see Gregori' v. McDonnell Douglas Corp. (1976) 17 Cal.Sd 596, 601: "[Where potentially defamatory statements are published in a public debate, ... or in another setting in which the audience may anticipate efforts by the parties to persuade others to their positions by use of epithets, fiery' rhetoric or hyperbole, language which generally might be considered as statements of fact may well assume the character of statements of opinion.")
Hi Micheal! You're a scumbag of the lowest form. So sue me!
78 posted on 10/24/2003 4:53 AM EDT by AmericaUnited
But a California state court ruling would only merit a footnote in a federal lawsuit.
I suspect (gotta CYA) Chancellor Palpatine has been looking into this personally because he has been considering doing this to certain FR posters here himself. I think several posters used to bring up his previous screen name and his perverted Free Republic pronouncements about his personal life under his prior screen name.
he is a vindictive malcontent troll.