On Monday, April 11, Johnny Depp's lawsuit against ex-wife Amber Heard will move forward in a Virginia courtroom. The case is likely to involve allegations from the couple's troubled marriage, which ended in 2017 amid accusations of abuse from both parties. But regardless of the details or the outcome of the trial, the suit could set a bad First Amendment precedent.
The suit stems from a December 2018 op-ed that Heard wrote in The Washington Post. In the brief article, Heard refers to herself as "a public figure representing domestic abuse." Though she never refers to anyone by name, Depp claimed in a defamation lawsuit filed in early 2019 that "[t]he op-ed's clear implication" was that he was her abuser. In the filing, Depp asked for $50 million in compensatory damages, plus punitive damages and attorney's fees.
