Fifty years ago, on March 9, 1964, the Supreme Court issued its opinion in New York Times v. Sullivan – a decision that allowed certain categories of gigantic and powerful corporations to negligently ruin ordinary citizens with impunity.  It should surprise no conservative that the particular corporation involved in this case was the New York Times or that Sullivan, the injured party, was a minor official in the South. The New York Times had carried a full-page ad reporting a number of “facts” relating to the conduct of officials in Alabama, and this advertisement described the behavior and statement of Alabama officials regarding integration.  The problem was that many of the statements were not true, and that all of these errors fell in the same direction:  the errors in reporting all made the Alabama officials look worse than they were. Sullivan, the Montgomery commissioner of public safety, requested that the New York Times issue a...(Read Full Article)