Regardless of the merits of his case, Attorney General Josh Stein has used questionable tactics in challenging a state law linked to political speech.
Lawyers representing N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein and Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman offered opposing written arguments Monday in a dispute involving a state law against campaign lies.
Politicians and newsmakers have lately developed a penchant for the words “libel,” “slander,” and “defamation.” Oftentimes these words, salient and distinct, are used carelessly and ignorantly. Writers and irresponsible journalists have in fact lurched off course — accidentally or deliberately — and sometimes — after costly and lengthy legal proceedings — the aggrieved party is...
Some reporters make mistakes that aren’t very innocent. Others distort the information they’ve gathered to push agendas. But rarely do those who engage in such malpractice suffer any public embarrassment — and it’s rarer still that their employers face any monetary setback for publishing those errors. But that actually happened in October, when a jury awarded...
The News & Observer of Raleigh claims it is being stripped of constitutional protections by a Wake County Superior Court judge’s order in a libel case that blocked witnesses and key evidence that would support a longstanding defense that truthful statements and accurate evidence can be the basis of a party’s defense in a defamation...
