At the center of Dominion Voting Systems’ lawsuit against Fox News and Fox Corporation is a deceptively subtle First Amendment question: How may a news outlet speak about false claims made by a public figure?
A Delaware judge will soon decide whether to grant summary judgment to Fox or Dominion, instead of sending the case to a jury. But that won’t be the end of the case. Unless the parties reach a settlement, the case could eventually wend its way to the U.S. Supreme Court, where the justices would have to confront this core question.
The facts of the case have been widely reported, and the enormous number of statements by Fox executives and employees has been usefully summarized by the Washington Post. Among the revelations: Fox personalities from CEO Rupert Murdoch to TV host Tucker Carlson privately acknowledged that President Donald Trump was lying when he claimed fraud cost him re-election.
