WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday turned away a bid by top Republican donor and former casino magnate Steve Wynn to undermine legal protections for news companies facing defamation suits.
Wynn asked the court to overturn the 1964 Supreme Court defamation ruling in New York Times v. Sullivan, which concluded that there must be evidence of “actual malice” for a public figure to pursue a defamation claim.
The court denied his request without comment.
Wynn had sued The Associated Press after it reported on claims of sexual misconduct made against him dating back to the 1970s, which he denied.
President Donald Trump has himself questioned existing libel law, and two conservative justices, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch, have indicated in the past that they would be open to overturning the Sullivan ruling.
In 2023, the court turned down a similar request brought by coal baron Don Blankenship.
"I continue to adhere to my view that we should reconsider the actual malice standard," Thomas wrote at the time.
Two years earlier, both Thomas and Gorsuch questioned the 1964 ruling when the court declined to take up a separate defamation case, with Gorsuch saying that the precedent has "evolved into a subsidy for published falsehoods."
So far, there appears to be no appetite among other justices to take up the issue, with four votes required for an appeal to be heard.
