Some readers may recall last year’s Supreme Court decision in Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus, in which the U.S. Supreme Court allowed a challenge to the Ohio ban on false statements in election campaigns; that was followed by a district court decision holding that law unconstitutional.
But there’s another half to the Driehaus / Susan B. Anthony List litigation: a simple libel lawsuit that he had brought against the List based on its allegedly false statements. Friday, a 6th Circuit panel held that the statements likely weren’t false after all — and at least that there wasn’t enough evidence that the defendants knew they were false or likely false — and therefore threw out Driehaus’s lawsuit.