Maryland Court Weighs Right To Sue Vs. Right To Speak December 11, 2008
Posted by Mark Blei in : Uncategorized , trackbackJudges of Maryland’s highest court heard arguments this week about whether courts could order news organizations to reveal the names of people who posted online comments that were critical of a local business owner.
The judges are still considering the case, but at least some of them appeared to be poised to rule that the owner’s right to sue the commenters for defamation outweighs the users’ First Amendment right to speak anonymously.
“If there’s no First Amendment right to slander somebody, you can’t slander someone anonymously,” Judge Joseph F. Murphy Jr. of Maryland’s Court of Appeals said during the argument.
The case stems from comments posted to NewsZap.com, community news sites operated by Independent Newspapers, Inc. In one post, a commenter described a Centreville, Md. Dunkin’ Donuts owned by local business person Zebulon Brodie as “one of the most dirty and unsanitary-looking food-service places I have seen,” according to court papers.
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