By Matthew Naum, Staff Writer
A federal judge has reversed his dismissal of Nicholas Sandmann’s quarter billion-dollar lawsuit against the Washington Post following the submission of an amended complaint.[1] In a story that polarized the American public and one the New York Times called “an explosive convergence of race, religion, and ideological beliefs,”[2] Sandmann and his high school classmates were pilloried by the media and general public following video that appeared to show them mocking and taunting individuals attending the Indigenous Peoples March in Washington D.C. earlier this year.[3] Subsequent video of the incident that was released appeared to exonerate him and his classmates, leading to the massive lawsuit against the Post. [4]
The lawsuit stems from the confrontation between Nicholas Sandmann and other students from Covington Catholic Highschool in Kentucky and Native American activist Nathan Phillips along with other demonstrators.[5] The students and demonstrators were at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on January 19, 2019, students being there for the March for Life and Phillips being there for Indigenous Peoples’ March, respectively.[6] The initial viral video showed a chaotic scene with Sandmann, wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat, smiling while Phillips played a drum just inches away from him.[7] Surrounding Sandmann were his fellow classmates who were boisterously singing and chanting.[8] The initial reporting and discussion on social media, colored by Phillips’ public comments that he felt hatred coming from the students,[9] painted Sandmann and the other students as disrespectful or even racist, and that they were “taunting” Phillips.[10][11] Sandmann specifically stated that he had received death threats as a result of the initial outrage.[12] Days after the initial reporting, additional video emerged that showed a third group, members of the Hebrew Israelites, hurling insults and racial epithets at both the students and Phillips’ group and corroborated Sandmann’s contention that his classmates were not chanting to taunt or insult Phillips but to drown out the hateful language of the Hebrew Israelites.[13] The Washington Post subsequently issued an editor’s note admitting that new video and reporting contradicted or failed to confirm the accounts reported in their initial story.[14]
As a result of what they felt was unfair media treatment, Sandmann and his family hired Atlanta-based attorney L. Lin Wood, a prominent attorney in the field of defamation and “media sensitive situations”.[15][16] Wood has represented other individuals involved in media controversies such as Richard Jewell, wrongfully accused of involvement in the bombing of Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta in 1996.[17] Wood has experience in defamation suits, including members of the Ramsey family against CBS News and others relating to their supposed involvement in the murder of JonBenet Ramsey.[18] Sandmann and his lawyers filed a libel claim against Washington Post in a Kentucky federal court seeking $250 million in damages.[19] In the lawsuit, Sandmann’s attorneys claimed the Post published seven stories that provided a “false and defamatory gist” of the encounter at the Lincoln Memorial and “contributed to the rampant cyber-assault and cyber-bullying” against Sandmann.[20]
In July of this year, a federal judge in the US District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky granted a motion to dismiss the case filed by the Post.[21] In his opinion, Judge William Bertelsman accepted Sandmann’s statement that he was not trying to block or impede anyone and was merely attempting to calm the situation during the January 19 confrontation, though also noting Philips did not see it that way.[22] Ultimately, the court held that although possibly erroneous, Philips’ conclusions about Sandmann’s actions and intentions published by the Post are opinion protected by the First Amendment and the Post is not liable for publishing them. [23]
In October, Judge Bertelsman reversed his July dismissal of Sandmann’s libel suit after Sandmann’s attorneys filed an amended complaint.[24] In the five-page order, the court narrowed the scope of the suit to three of the original thirty-three alleged defamatory statements, focusing on the statements that said Sandmann had “blocked” Phillips and “would not allow him to retreat.”[25] The court also noted that the amended complaint alleged in greater detail that the original complaint that Phillips deliberately lied about the events on January 19, and that he “had an unsavory reputation, but for which [the Post’s] negligence or malice, would have alerted [the Post] to this fact.”[26] As a result, the court ordered the case to move to discovery for the three statements specified by the court.[27]
In an age where only a paltry 41% of Americans trust mass media to accurately report the news,[28] a finding of liability on the part of the Post if this case proceeds to a jury trial will likely only further foment the public’s distrust in American mass media. Additionally, any further negative press for the Post will likely serve to embolden President Trump’s attacks against the mainstream media in the United States as he has already lent his support to Sandmann’s suit on his Twitter account, saying “Go get them Nick. Fake news!”[29]
[1] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2019/10/28/cov-cath-judge-rules-lawsuit-against-washington-post-can-continue/2489395001/
[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/20/us/nathan-phillips-covington.html
[3] https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/1/23/18192831/covington-catholic-maga-hat-native-american-nathan-phillips
[4] https://www.foxnews.com/us/sandmann-family-sue-cnn-for-275m-in-covington-catholic-controversy
[5] https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/19/us/teens-mock-native-elder-trnd/index.html
[6] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/22/us/covington-catholic-washington-videos.html
[7] https://apnews.com/90c35b0e3b1f41abbcb28eef7cf4bd9a
[8] Id.
[9] https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/21/us/nathan-phillips-maga-teens-interview/index.html
[10] Id.
[11] https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/426597-in-covington-students-controversy-media-forgets-to-get-it-first-but
[12] https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/20/us/covington-kentucky-student-statement/index.html
[13] https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/21/us/maga-hat-teens-native-american-second-video/index.html
[14] https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2019/03/01/editors-note-related-lincoln-memorial-incident/
[15] https://nypost.com/2019/01/25/maga-teens-family-hires-high-profile-libel-attorney/
[16] http://www.linwoodlaw.com/about/what-we-do/
[17] https://apnews.com/76a822254db8bf433368eedb10d7c58a
[18] http://www.linwoodlaw.com/about/what-we-do/
[19] https://www.npr.org/2019/02/20/696245435/covington-catholic-teen-nick-sandmann-sues-washington-post-for-250-million
[20] Id.
[21] https://abcnews.go.com/US/judge-dismisses-suit-washington-post-filed-teen-faced/story?id=64606899
[22] Id.
[23] Id.
[24] https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/federal-judge-reinstates-libel-lawsuit-filed-by-covington-catholic-teen-against-washington-post/2019/10/28/30155c52-f9ae-11e9-ac8c-8eced29ca6ef_story.html
[25] Id.
[26] Sandmann v. WP Company LLC, No. 2:19-00019 WOB-CJS (E.D. Ky. Oct. 28, 2019).
[27] Id.
[28] https://news.gallup.com/poll/267047/americans-trust-mass-media-edges-down.aspx
[29] https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/politics/2019/02/20/covcath-trump-cheers-nick-sandmann-suit-against-washington-post/2930573002/
