Public lawsuits need scrutiny

Hilton Head Island Town Council member Kim Likins, Bluffton Mayor Lisa Sulka and Skip Hoagland should study two U.S. Supreme Court decisions relevant to their cases.

The 1988 decision in Hustler Magazine vs. Jerry Falwell rendered a verdict favoring Hustler. The magazine had run a parody that Falwell had engaged in a drunken, incestuous relationship with his mother. Complete fabrication.

The Supreme Court ruled for Hustler, saying that the “fact that society finds speech offensive is not sufficient reason for repressing it.” The court also made the point that since Falwell was a public figure, he could not prevail for emotional distress.

The 1964 ruling in The New York Times vs. Sullivan favored the Times, which had run an ad containing a number of factual assertions that turned out to be false. The ad made serious charge about law enforcement and called out police actions in Montgomery, Ala.

L.B. Sullivan, an elected commissioner in Montgomery who supervised the police department, sued the Times for defamation.

In ruling for the Times, the Supreme Court determined that “debate on public issues ... may well include vehement, caustic and sometimes unpleasant attacks on ... public officials.”

Clearly, there is more to these cases than this letter can cover.

The Packet might do a “Long Read” on the decisions as they bear on the Likins/Sulka/Hoagland cases.

Likins’ case has cost taxpayers $198,000. Sulka has just filed her lawsuit.

Both could become very expensive and could be lost.

Both appear to be attempts to silence critics.

Likins and Sulka should repay taxpayers out of their own pockets if they lose.

This story was originally published August 22, 2017 at 7:21 AM with the headline "Public lawsuits need scrutiny."