Actual Malice

Does the First Amendment shield you from liability in state defamation cases for publishing false statements about someone else? Not entirely, but the Supreme Court's decision in the case of New York Times v. Sullivan (1964) makes it very difficult for a public figure to win a libel case. In a similar way, the case of Snyder v. Phelps (2011) makes it difficult to successfully prove the intentional infliction of emotional distress when someone is speaking in a public forum about matters of public concern.