New York Times Co. v. Sullivan

Plaintiff claimed he was defamed in a full-page ad taken out in the New York Times. The ad charged that the plaintiff, among others, had been involved with an unprecedented wave of terror against members of the civil rights movement in the south. The court determined the extent to which the constitutional protections for speech and press limit a state's power to award damages in a libel action brought by a public official against critics of his official conduct.

The court held that the Constitution delimits a State's power to award damages for libel in actions brought by public officials against critics of their official conduct.

Defamation | Constitutional Privileges