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Appeals Court Revives Sarah Palin’s Defamation Lawsuit Against New York Times

Palin sued The New York Times in 2017 over an editorial that insinuated her campaign’s ad was tied to the shooting of former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

Sarah Palin will get the chance to pursue her defamation case against The New York Times following a decision from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on Tuesday. The Second Circuit went against a lower court’s previous ruling, which tossed Palin’s case out in 2017, The Hill reports. Palin sued the newspaper for defamation after it published an editorial linking an advertisement by the former Alaska governor to the 2011 mass shooting that targeted former Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-AZ). The Times editorial was published after Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) was shot at a Republican congressional baseball practice in June 2017, and incorrectly said that a Palin ad showed Giffords’ face behind crosshairs; the ad showed Giffords’ district behind the sights. Later in 2017, a judge ruled Palin could not prove the Times had “malicious” intent in publishing the editorial, which is needed in defamation cases. In Tuesday’s decision by three judges, the court found Palin’s lawsuit “plausibly states a claim for defamation and may proceed to full discovery.”