On October 10, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear Don Blankenship’s libel case against some big media organziations. Blankenship was the Constitution Party’s nominee for president in 2020, although the case did not involve the 2020 election. Instead, it focuses on Blankenship’s race for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senator from West Virginia. He lost that 2018 primary, but it is somewhat plausible that he could have won if many media stories had not printed and broadcast that he was a “convicted felon.” He was never convicted of a felony, and his lawsuit charged that because they knew he was not a convicted felon, he should have been able to prevail in lower court when he sued them for libel.
Blankenship v NBC, 22-1125.
The U.S. Supreme Court had Blankenship v NBC on its September 26, 2023 conference, and took no action. Then they considered it again last week and on October 10 said they won’t take it. But U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas was interested enough in the case that he wrote his own opinion explaining why he didn’t vote to hear it. See it here. Scroll down to the very end. Thanks to ElectionLawBlog for this news.
Here is the last brief filed in the case in the U.S. Supreme Court, the reply brief by Blankenship.
