''Rosenblatt v. Baer'', 383 U.S. 75 (1966), was a

United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

case regarding the

First Amendment to the United States Constitution The First Amendment (Amendment I) to the United States Constitution prevents the government from making laws that regulate an establishment of religion, or that prohibit the free exercise of religion, or abridge the freedom of speech, the ...

Background

In January 1960, a newspaper column by Alfred D. Rosenblatt published in the '' Laconia Evening Citizen'' criticized the fiscal management of a county recreation area, primarily used as a ski resort and supervised by Frank P. Baer as a

Belknap County Belknap County () is a county in the U.S. state of New Hampshire. As of the 2020 census, the population was 63,705. The county seat is Laconia. It is located in New Hampshire's Lakes Region, slightly southeast of the state's geographic center. ...

government employee, stating "What happened to all the money last year? and every other year?" Baer, who had been fired as supervisor in July 1959, brought a civil

libel Defamation is the act of communicating to a third party false statements about a person, place or thing that results in damage to its reputation. It can be spoken (slander) or written (libel). It constitutes a tort or a crime. The legal defini ...

claim in

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

state court against Rosenblatt. In April 1963, a jury in

New Hampshire Superior Court The New Hampshire Superior Court is the statewide court of general jurisdiction which provides jury trials in civil and criminal cases. There are 11 locations of the Superior Court, one for each county and two in Hillsborough County. Jurisdictio ...

awarded Baer damages in the amount of $31,500. The

New Hampshire Supreme Court The New Hampshire Supreme Court is the supreme court of the U. S. state of New Hampshire and sole appellate court of the state. The Supreme Court is seated in the state capital, Concord. The Court is composed of a Chief Justice and four Associate ...

affirmed the award in October 1964. Between the original case and an appeal brought by Rosenblatt, the

had decided ''

New York Times Co. v. Sullivan ''New York Times Co. v. Sullivan'', 376 U.S. 254 (1964), was a landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling that the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution's freedom of speech protections limit the ability of American public officials to sue for ...

'', in which they held that a state cannot award damages to a public official for a defamatory falsehood relating to official conduct unless the official can show

actual malice Actual malice in United States law is a legal requirement imposed upon public officials or public figures when they file suit for libel (defamatory printed communications). Compared to other individuals who are less well known to the general publi ...

. In March 1965, the United States Supreme Court agreed to hear the case. In October 1965, the case was argued before the court by Arthur H. Nighswander for the petitioner (Rosenblatt) and Stanley M. Brown for the respondent (Baer). The

American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...

(ACLU) filed an '' amicus'' brief, urging reversal of the original decision.

Opinion of the Court

In an 8–0 decision issued in February 1966, the Court reversed the decision of the New Hampshire Supreme Court. It argued that there was a probability that Baer was a public official and therefore would be required to show actual malice in the depictions presented by the newspaper. It was left to the trial judge to decide whether Baer qualified as a public official. Associate Justice Abe Fortas stated in a jurisdictional dissent, "I would vacate the writ f ''certiorari''">certiorari.html" ;"title="f ''certiorari">f ''certiorari''in this case as improvidently granted," as the original trial had occurred before ''New York Times Co. v. Sullivan'' was decided.

Resolution

The New Hampshire Supreme Court issued a ruling in December 1967 that Baer was entitled to a jury trial to determine if, in the context of the alleged libel, Baer was acting as a public official, coincident with a trial to determine merits of the libel case. However, the matter was ultimately resolved through an out of court settlement in March 1968.

Notes

References

External links

* {{caselaw source , case = ''Rosenblatt v. Baer'', {{ussc, 383, 75, 1966, el=no , courtlistener =https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/107163/rosenblatt-v-baer/ , findlaw = https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/383/75.html , googlescholar = https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=2913195248672040112 , justia =https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/383/75/ , loc =http://cdn.loc.gov/service/ll/usrep/usrep383/usrep383075/usrep383075.pdf , oyez =https://www.oyez.org/cases/1965/38
Rosenblatt v. Baer (1966) Overview , LSData Case Brief Video Summary
via

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New Hampshire state case law United States defamation case law United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Warren Court 1966 in United States case law Belknap County, New Hampshire *