1st student:
The legal case that I chose to write on is the Mckee v. Cosby case that occurred in 2019. This specific case was very heavily related to the act of Slander and the Libel Law. This case dealt with the defamation and accusation of Bill Cosby, who was being accused of raping an actress named Katherine Mckee. However, this case dealt with the defamation of Actress Katherine Mckee. She filed a lawsuit against Cosby and his attorney since his attorney leaked a defamation letter against her, which hurt her image. This letter was sent around the world and around numerous news outlets. The Supreme Court in 2019 declined to review this case since it was ruled to be a purpose public figure who needed to show actual malice. Since both of the people who are related in this case are public figures the law requires them to be held at a higher standard than regular citizens are. This case turned into a case that dealt with the Libel Law since Cosby’s attorney wrote this letter that tarnished her image while Mckee was accusing Cosby of rape. The Supreme Court dismissed this since Mckee couldn’t provide actual evidence that the letter was written and leaked with malice. Ultimately, they challenged and sought to challenge the court and how they decided to rule this in regards to the libel law, and it is connected to the constitutional law. I think that this case was very important and that more people should look at it because it is incredibly twisted. I think that it is wrong to deny someone their rights to this case because there was no proven malice to the leaked letter that defamed her. I am not sure if I am able to place in my opinion or not. However, I believe that people should protect the person who is accusing the person of rape since I would much rather protect someone who falsely accused someone of rape and then convict them for defaming versus protecting someone who actually did rape someone and is being let go just because they are a public figure or somehow “won.”
https://www.mtsu.edu/first-amendment/article/1840/mckee-v-cosby
2nd student:
For this discussion post I found a video called Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg answers questions, addresses the possibility of regulation. This was posted on youtube in 2018, and it concerns facebook and its involvement with regulating what is on the site. I personally chose this because social media is something that is a huge part of everyone’s lives nowadays. I think we should stay updated on how the social media apps we use are taking our personal information and using it for their own benefit. Most of this video talks about how facebook has been known to limit certain political posts from surfacing. This at the time was more focusing on the recent 2016 election and how some affiliations were using facebook to gather private info about people and spread their own personal views and beliefs to others. This is extremely important because you dont usually meet people in today’s society that aren’t on social media, and things like this are still happening today and we should be aware of it. This topic involves all of us today. Relating to the first amendment rights this topic and issue pertains most to the invasion of privacy in the media. Online privacy is important for numerous reasons. You don’t want to share details of your personal life with strangers and it’s hard to be sure what personal information is gathered and by whom: information collected by one company might be shared with another. Here is a link to the video, I think it’s important to watch because the U.S. senators ask some extremely important questions that relate to how our information is being used and how they want to limit how facebook is advertising some things; like different political views. The ultimate decision was never shown in the end of the video, it concluded with now clear resolution other than the CEO of facebook stating very clearly that he understand the issues at hand and takes complete responsibility for the things that have happened and how personal information has been used against individuals wishes.
3rd student :
I have selected the case of Zervos vs Trump, I chose this because I think it is relevant to everyone who is a US citizen, he is the former president and this is one of the law suits he is facing once he concedes.
This case came about when Summer Zervos was on the show “The Apprentice”, she claims that Donald Trump had inappropriately groped her and that he forced himself on her two separate times in 2007. After she came out and claimed this, Trump had called her a liar and then posted a tweet with a picture of Zervos with the caption “This is all yet another hoax.” After the tweet Zervos sued for defamation saying that everything she said was true and that Trump had ruined her reputation. Trump’s lawyers tried to get the case dismissed saying it would interfere with the government’s exercise of powers. Marc E. Kasowitz, Trump’s Lawyer, argued that Trump going to court would impede his ability to properly performing his duties. two justices, Justice Peter Tom and Justice Angela M. Mazzarelli, actually agreed with the presidents stance that the suit could interfere with his ability to do his job. Trump’s lawyers have successfully postponed the case so far, but Mariann Wang, Zervos’ attourney at the time, stated that the calls between Trump and Zervos prove that they had met on the days that Zervos says they met. They have paused the case and there has not yet been a verdict. This case determines if we can ruin people’s reputation on social media, if Zervos wins, we better be a little more careful of what we are posting on twitter, I think it’s a little different with Trump because he does have a lot more influence than the everyday person, but we should still think about stuff we are posting and how they can effect others. I think it is a little frustrating that Trump has not yet been tried for this even, this case started in 2017 and is still going on, I bet Summer Zervos is frustrated that she’s had to wait so long to get an answer.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/01/07/politics/summer-zervos-trump-lawsuit/index.html (Links to an external site.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/nyregion/summer-zervos-trump-defamation-lawsuit.html (Links to an external site.)
