Link: https://www.nationalreview.com/2019/05/the-supreme-court-should-take-upnr-v-mann-and-vindicate-free-speech/ Please see link above for original text, embedded hotlinks and comments.
The Supreme Court Should Take Up NR v. Mann, and Vindicate Free Speech The Editors of the NATIONAL REVIEW May 23, 2019
In 2012, Barack Obama was still president, indeed had four years left in his presidency. “Gangnam Style” was a world-beating music video. Game of Thrones had just gotten started. And, oh yeah, the climate scientist Michael Mann sued NATIONAL REVIEW over a blog post. Seven years later, this case has gone pretty much nowhere, thanks to a dilatory D.C. Court of Appeals. Now, NATIONAL REVIEW has asked the Supreme Court of the United States to intervene in the case of Mann v. National Review, Inc., to at long last reach a resolution that vindicates free speech. At stake in this fight is nothing less than the integrity of the First Amendment — and, by extension, the right of all Americans to engage in robust political debate without being dragged into court by the frivolous and the hypersensitive to be bled dry of their time, effort, and money. That, after seven years, NATIONAL REVIEW has not yet been freed from this frivolous claim is bad enough. But that inconvenience, real as it is, pales in comparison to the damage that would be done to America’s broader debate were the indifference of the D.C. Court of Appeals to become a chilling national precedent. A quick refresher is in order: Michael Mann sued NATIONAL REVIEW for libel over a 270word blog post that was critical of his now-infamous “hockey stick” graph and its role 1