| Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts | ||||||
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 Supreme Court of the United States |
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| Argued February 23, 1967 Decided June 12, 1967 |
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| Full case name | Curtis Publishing Company v. Wally Butts | |||||
| Citations | 388 U.S. 130 (more) 94 S. Ct. 2997; 41 L. Ed. 2d 789; 1974 U.S. LEXIS 88; 1 Media L. Rep. 1633 |
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| Prior history | Cert. to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit | |||||
| Subsequent history | No. 37, 351 F.2d 702, affirmed; No. 150, 393 S.W.2d 671, reversed and remanded | |||||
| Holding | ||||||
| Libel damages may be recoverable (in this instance against a news organization) if the injured party is a non-public official; but claimants must demonstrate a reckless lack of professional standards on the part of the organization in examining allegations for reasonable credibility. | ||||||
| Court membership | ||||||
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| Case opinions | ||||||
| Plurality | Harlan, joined by Clark, Stewart, Fortas | |||||
| Concurrence | Warren | |||||
| Concur/dissent | Black, joined by Douglas | |||||
| Concur/dissent | Brennan, joined by White | |||||
| Laws applied | ||||||
| U.S. Const. amend. I | ||||||
Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts, 388 U.S. 130 (1967)[1], was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States established the standard of First Amendment protection against defamation claims brought by private individuals.
Curtis, no. 37, held that, while news organizations were protected from liability when printing allegations about public officials under the Supreme Court's New York Times Co. v. Sullivan decision (1964), they may still be sued by public figures if the information they disseminate is recklessly gathered and unchecked.
The damages awarded in the suit led to the closure of the Saturday Evening Post.
See also
References
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