Talk:Defamation/Archives/2015

Opinion privilege

I removed an unsourced statement about a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that there is no "opinion privilege" under American law of defamation. While there may or may not be such a court ruling, the statement misses the point.

There doesn't "need" to be a legal concept called an "opinion privilege" in order for the American law of defamation to recognize a distinction between a statement of fact and a statement of opinion. Even if the Supreme Court ruling exists, the mention of the ruling in the article as it was presented (without some further explanation) might tend to leave the false impression that American law makes no distinction between statements of fact and statements of opinion. Famspear (talk) 15:09, 5 June 2015 (UTC)

If we find a reliable source for the information on the Supreme Court ruling and a clear explanation of how that ruling fits into the big picture, that could of course be considered for inclusion in the article. Famspear (talk) 15:59, 5 June 2015 (UTC)

I did a quick search, and I found U.S. Supreme Court cases such as Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co., 497 U.S. 1 (1990). We'll have to get to this later (right now I'm dealing with real world stuff). Famspear (talk) 16:05, 5 June 2015 (UTC)

There is a legal concept of opinion privilege, however the phrasing of SCOTUS opinions is such that, while effectively amounting to the same thing, they have not explicitly said that opinion privilege exists as a right. All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 18:14, 6 June 2015 (UTC).