MAGA Kid Loses Defamation Claim Because His Defamation Claim Never Made A Lick Of Sense

Covington Catholic student Nick Sandmann went viral as the MAGA
hat-wearing kid who smirked in the face of a Native-American
activist.

Sandmann claims he and his friends were the ones being harassed
— allegedly by a group of Black Israelites. People have argued that
this is why it was “more complex” that some students were heard
hurling invective at a Native-American guy while Sandmann stood
there, which doesn’t exactly follow but here we are.

Sandmann filed a massive defamation lawsuit against the
Washington Post over its reporting on the incident.

Conservative social media gleefully proclaimed that the $250
million lawsuit would destroy the Washington Post, the only major
national newspaper with lingering credibility in a world where
Maggie Haberman continues to masquerade as a journalist for the New
York Times. As it turned out, the Sandmann case just got booted to
the curb exactly as every actual lawyer expected.

Whether Sandmann took part in the uglier aspects of the fracas
or not — or whether or not merely wearing a hat largely accepted as
communicating animosity toward minorities was enough to make
Sandmann more than a passive bystander in the affair — weren’t
issues the court even needed to touch.

In the end, Judge Bertelsman actually read the Washington Post
articles and decided that hurting a snowflake’s feelings didn’t
amount to defamation in Kentucky… or anywhere actually:

The Court accepts Sandmann’s statement that, when he was
standing motionless in the confrontation with Phillips, his intent
was to calm the situation and not to impede or block anyone.

However, Phillips did not see it that way. He concluded that he
was being “blocked” and not allowed to “retreat.” He passed these
conclusions on to The Post. They may have been erroneous, but, as
discussed above, they are opinion protected by the First Amendment.
And The Post is not liable for publishing these opinions, for the
reasons discussed in this Opinion.

And that is the only specific claim that Sandmann identified as
defamatory. The rest of the complaint relied heavily on the phrase
“false and defamatory gist,” and for those of you taking the bar
exam, causes of actions are rarely pleaded with particularity when
the complaint repeatedly uses the word “gist.”

This is a huge blow to the psyche of right-wing social media
which at this point is just Wall memes, Sandmann’s cause, and QAnon
theories all cobbled together with scotch tape and dementia. But
lawyers should know better.

Even the right-wing commentators at Legal Insurrection called
the suit out as silly from jump. But over at The Federalist,
they’re still spinning nonsense about the strength of the complaint
and holding out hope that the Sixth Circuit will swoop in and smash
the Washington Post.

Hey, any court that has judges like John Bush who can boast
“anti-gay blogger” as his primary qualification for the job always
has a decent chance of taking a radical departure from the law, but
barring a panel of judges looking to waste judicial resources for
the sake of rallying the base, this shambles of a case should be
finally put out of its misery.

Culled form /abovethelaw.com/

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Again, ICPC Recovers N117m worth of Constituency Project
from another Senator

In its continuing effort at ensuring the satisfactory execution
and completion of all Constituency Projects across the country
through the Constituency Projects Tracking Group (CPTG) initiative,
the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences
Commission (ICPC) has again recovered items worth N117,123,375.44
million from the Senator representing Enugu North Senatorial
District of Enugu State.

The items covered by this amount and recovered from the
legislator are 168 and 51 numbers of motorcycles and tricycles
respectively. They were discovered to be stashed away in a compound
in Mkpologu town of Uzo-Nwani Local Government Area, believed to be
owned by the Senator.

ICPC findings indicated clearly that the contract for the
procurement of the items was awarded on 23rd January 2018, under
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as part of the Senator’s
constituency projects.

Investigations have also shown that the companies awarded the
contracts for the project are as follows: Al-Amir Int. Ltd.,
Du-Lumac Ltd., Com Technologies System Ltd. and Chumax Agency
Ltd.

Additionally, ICPC recovered 203 grinding machines, 60
motorcycles and 5 transformers in the compound which had been
procured under another constituency project. Thereupon the
Commission impounded all the items and sealed the Senator’s
compound.

The tricycles, motorcycles and grinding machines were meant to
be distributed to the lawmaker’s constituents to empower them as
part of the Federal Government’s efforts to alleviate poverty.

The Senator has pledged to ICPC that they would be distributed
to beneficiaries on Tuesday 6th August, 2019.

While ICPC is investigating circumstances that led to the items
being in the possession of the sponsoring legislator rather than
the implementing agency, its officers will be on the scene to
supervise the distribution.

Mrs. Rasheedat A. Okoduwa, mni
Spokesperson for the Commission