New Foreign Policy piece by Jacob Mchangama, this time with Nadine Strossen on Ron DeSantis, a Republican, who is expected by many to announce his candidacy for president in the coming weeks or months. DeSantis’s call to make it easier to sue the media for `false information’” is part of a larger Republican revolt against the 1964 Supreme Court New York Times v. Sullivan decision, which sets a very high bar for when public figures and officials can successfully sue for defamation.
“But there is every reason to think that overturning Sullivan would cause massive collateral damage to political speech on both sides of the partisan divide. Worse yet, overturning Sullivan would not only undermine liberty, equality, and democracy in the United States. It would likely also do so in democracies around the world where these freedoms are already under systematic threat.” Jacob Mchangama and Nadine Strossen
