Wyoming High Court Rules Public Figures May Sue for Defamation

The Wyoming Supreme Court ruled Thursday that public figures have private lives and careers shielding them from defamatory attacks.

But a ruling that attorney Gerry Spence may sue Hustler magazine for defamation left one justice worried about the decision’s possible chilling effect on free speech.

“The right to freedom of speech has frost on it today. I am compelled to dissent lest tomorrow it be entombed in ice,” Justice Michael Golden said.

In overturning a lower court’s summary judgment in favor of the magazine and publisher Larry Flynt, the high court said: “A public figure is not subject to defamatory attack and criticism just because he is a public figure.”

Neither Spence nor lawyers for the magazine were available for comment Thursday.

Spence, who successfully defended former Philippine First Lady Imelda Marcos against federal corruption charges, sued Hustler for $150 million for featuring him in a monthly article that appeared in July, 1985.

The article, in which the magazine cites people whose actions it finds offensive, stemmed from Spence’s agreeing to represent an anti-pornography activist in her lawsuit against Hustler.

In that case, Andrea Dworkin contended that sexually explicit photographs and caricatures in Hustler libeled her and invaded her privacy.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 1989 refused to consider Dworkin’s $150-million lawsuit, agreeing with the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals that Hustler’s references were opinion and were thus protected by the free speech guarantees in the First Amendment.

In Spence’s lawsuit against Hustler, the five-member Wyoming Supreme Court ruled that the lawyer, although widely known, might have been acting solely in the capacity of a private attorney in representing Dworkin.

“The statements by Hustler about Spence are clearly defamatory, for they are such as would hold him up to hatred, contempt or ridicule. Unless they are protected defamatory criticism of a public figure, they are actionable, and Spence should be allowed to pursue his claim,” the majority opinion by Justice G. Joseph Cardine said.

A trial is necessary to determine whether Spence was taking a public stand against pornography in agreeing to represent Dworkin, Cardine wrote.