Dorothy Stevens v. Dorothy Wright Tillman

How courts have described this case

Verbatim parenthetical descriptions written by other courts when citing this decision. Ranked by citation-network relevance.

• holding that the terms “racist” 21 and “bigoted” have been “watered down by overuse” and are non-actionable unless they 22 “impl[y] the existence of undisclosed, defamatory facts”
• holding that neither general statements charging a person with being racist, unfair, or unjust, nor references to general discriminatory treatment, without more, constitute provably false assertions of fact
• concluding that the term “racist” has been used so variously as to have been “drain[ed] . . . of its former, decidedly opprobrious meaning” and to now “fit comfortably within the immunity for name-calling.”
• noting that calling someone a racist \is not actionable unless it implies the existence of undisclosed[] defamatory facts\
• noting that calling someone a racist \is not actionable unless it implies the existence of undisclosed[] defamatory facts\
• noting applicability of Noerr-Pennington as defense to plaintiff's civil rights action, but finding for defendants on other grounds

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).