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Supreme Court· 6/10/1968

St. Amant v. Thompson

Citations

  • 390 U.S. 727
  • 88 S. Ct. 1323
  • 20 L. Ed. 2d 262
  • 1968 U.S. LEXIS 3004

How courts have described this case

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

  • holding that evidence that the defendant did not verify the truth of his statements was insufficient to prove that the defendant acted with reckless disregard
  • holding that to show actual malice, plaintiff must show \high degree of awareness of probably falsity\
  • concluding that actual malice cannot be estab- lished by merely showing that the publisher relied on the unverified statement of a third party
  • holding that reckless disregard for reliance upon a source may only be found where there are “obvious reasons to doubt the veracity of the informant or the accuracy of his reports”
  • holding that professions of good faith will unlikely prove persuasive where a story is fabricated, it is the product of imagination, or it is based on unverified, anonymous information
  • stating that there must be sufficient evidence to permit the conclusion that the defendant in fact entertained serious doubts as to the truth of his publication

Source: CourtListener parenthetical corpus (CC0).

Judges: White, Foetas, Black, Douglas, Times, Sullivan, Louisiana

Read full opinion on CourtListener

Cited by

1,418 cases in this archive cite this case; the 20 most cited are listed.

Cites

6 cases in this archive are cited by this case.

Other cases named St. Amant v. Thompson

1 other CourtListener record shares this case name.

Sourced from CourtListener / Free Law Project (CC0).

This is legal information, not legal advice. Laws vary by jurisdiction and change frequently. Always verify current law with official sources and consult a licensed attorney in your jurisdiction for advice on your specific situation.