Covington Catholic High School student Nicholas Sandmann has just filed a libel suit against the Washington Post.  Our court system is built around precedent, so it is important to search for prior cases with relevance to the current one.  Though it does not appear in his filing, it might help Mr. Sandmann to have his attorneys look up a prior case that resulted in a jury finding that the Post had libeled a public figure, Tavoulareas v. Washington Post.  The jury verdict was overridden by the trial judge and then remanded to the court on appeal.  You can read the trial court decision and the appeal decision, Case No. 83-1604.  In the decision of the appeals court, senior circuit judge McKinnon wrote: Plaintiffs William and Peter Tavoulareas brought suit against The Washington Post ("Post") and several other defendants for libel and against defendant Piro, a source for the story, for slander and its foreseeable...(Read Full Post)