Pan Am Systems, Inc. v. Atlantic Northeast Rails & Ports, Inc.

How courts have described this case

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

• “Modern defamation law is a complex mixture of common-law rules and constitutional doctrines.”
• “Because truth can set a defendant free, so to speak, it follows that defamatory statements are not punishable unless they are capable of being proved true or false.”
• \[D]efendants cannot be on the hook because ... the speech deals with an issue of public concern and plaintiffs have not shown the speech (even if false) is materially false.\
• “To qualify as a matter of public concern, the speech (based on the content, form, and context) must touch on issues in which the public (even a small slice of the public) might be interested, as distinct, say, from purely personal squabbles”

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).