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Appeals Court Revives Sarah Palin’s Defamation Lawsuit Against New York Times.
I’m sure you heard where Palin lost a case against the NY Times. What you didn’t hear was that the sitting judge dismissed the case while the jury was deliberating the case. The jury was given the judge’s decision and guess what? They ruled against Palin. But not the end of the case.
A three-judge panel of the Second Circuit held Wednesday that Rakoff had acted improperly and ordered a new trial.
From the decision:
We first reinstated the case in August 2019 following an initial dismissal by the district court (Rakoff, J.) under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6). Palin’s claim was subsequently tried before a jury but, while the jury was deliberating, the district court dismissed the case again—this time under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 50. We conclude that the district court’s Rule 50 ruling improperly intruded on the province of the jury by making credibility determinations, weighing evidence, and ignoring facts or inferences that a reasonable juror could plausibly have found to support Palin’s case.
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