You might recall candidate and later President Trump promising to “open up” the libel laws to make it easier for public figures or to sue for defamation. He may have forgotten that as often as he sued for libel, he, too, is occasionally a libel defendant, as is his supporters’ top network of choice, Fox News, when it came to their coverage of his and others’ 2020 election denial.

When the U.S. Supreme Court constitutionalized defamation law in 1964′s New York Times v. Sullivan, the court implemented an actual malice standard where the plaintiff must prove the speaker published knowing falsehoods or with a reckless disregard for the truth. President Trump and others, including more than one Supreme Court justice, have publicly complained that standard—which applies to public figures, public officials and certain matters of public concern—made it too hard to prove defamation.

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