Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court
Credit: James Leynse/Corbis /Getty

Justice Clarence Thomas published an opinion on Tuesday announcing that he would completely rewrite the law of defamation — potentially to such a degree that journalists could be subject to criminal prosecutions for making truthful claims that embarrass the subjects of their reporting.

Thomas’ opinion concurring in his court’s decision not to hear McKee v. Cosby is an attack on New York Times v. Sullivan, a seminal Supreme Court decision “that prohibits a public official from recovering damages for a defamatory falsehood” unless they can show that the statement was made “with knowledge that it was false or with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.” No other member of the Court joined Thomas’ opinion.

New York Times involved an Alabama lawsuit that tried to impose crippling costs on the venerable newspaper after it published an advertisement seeking support for the Civil Rights Movement and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s legal defense. The ad contained some factual […]