Kawasaki Motors Corp. v. Lancaster County Board of Equalization

How courts have described this case

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

• holding that a reasonable reader would view a particular political cartoon and its accompanying text as a false factual assertion
• holding that the innocent-construction rule did not apply because the cartoon at issue was susceptible to only \ one reasonable interpretation\-a defamatory one
• holding that the actual-malice standard, which removes free speech protections provided by the federal and state constitutions, must be proven by clear and convincing evidence
• holding that, where a cartoon published by a candidate for political office unambiguously depicted the opposing candidate engaging in unlawful and unethical activity, such cartoon was not reasonably susceptible to more than one meaning and was thus defamatory
• explaining that the \innocent-construction rule” only applies to statements that \are reasonably susceptible to an innocent construction” (emphasis in original)
• statements that are reasonably susceptible of an innocent construction are protected under the innocent-construction rule

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).