Defining California Civil Code Section 47(3): The Resurgence of Self-Governance

Abstract

In 1964, the United States Supreme Court ruled in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan that a public official cannot recover damages for libel unless he proves that the alleged libel was published with knowledge of its falsity or with reckless disregard of its truth or falsity, a standard that the Court called malice.2 In the 1971 case, Rosenbloom v. Metromedia, Inc. ,3 a plurality of the Court applied the New York Times standard of actual malice to a defamation action brought by a private individual where the allegedly defamatory story involved a matter of public interest. Only three years later, the Court overruled Rosenbloom in Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc.4 The Court held that where the plaintiff is a private individual, the level of constitutional protection that extends to publications by the media may be less than New York Times actual malice. Gertz allowed states to establish their own standards of liability, provided that liability was not imposed without regard to fault and that punitive damages were not awarded without proof of New York Times actual malice.5