Dear Santa,

I know I haven't written in a while, but something has come up.

Sarah Palin, through her attorney, is threatening to sue blogger and radio personality Shannon Moore for reporting the existence of rumors about a pending investigation of Palin’s dealings in connection with the construction of the Wasilla Sports Complex and the Palin residence.

oh please, oh please, oh please

The basis for such a suit is clear.  For too long we have witnessed the politics of personal destruction, the bloodsport of smearing a persons’ reputation.  The courts are the last resort, the place where the innocent can avenger her honor, save her reputation, and take some measure of revenge on her tormentors.

oh double please, oh double please, I’ll be good for a whole year, I promise

Remember the lengthy list of hit jobs on Hilary?  The accusations that Bill hired killers to murder his opponents and ran planes full of cocaine up from Latin America?  Remember black helicopters?  And how about the current President - have you heard any false accusations about him?  Well, Sarah Palin stands ready to ride tall into the sagebrush of the mountaintop … wait a minute, I lost my metaphor.

remember that time I was ten and I really wanted a pony?  I want this more.  Much, much more.  Please-please-please.  I’ll never ask for another thing, I promise.

Okay, I suppose I ought to make some pretense of a serious point.   Here goes.  The standards for a public figure suing someone for libel are set by New York Times v Sullivan, as modified by Gertz v Welch.  The original Sullivan rule applied to political figures; the gloss extended it to “public figures” generally.  The standard is that for a public figure to prevail in a libel suit, they have to prove that the statement in question was made with “malice,” or at a minimum with “reckless disregard for the truth.”  In practice, that “reckless disregard” standard has been pretty well abandoned; the only way for a public figure to win a libel suit is to show that the party making the statement knew it was false.

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