PHOENIX (AP) - The Arizona Supreme Court will hear a defamation case stemming from a state senator’s attack advertisements during a failed congressional run in 2018.
Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers attacked her opponent - former state Sen. Steve Smith - in multiple advertisements, including a radio commercial that called him a “slimy character whose modeling agency specializes in underage girls and advertises on websites linked to sex trafficking,” the Arizona Capitol Times reported Tuesday.
Rogers campaign’s website - www.slimysteve.com - also said Smith advertises on a website containing pornographic material.
Pamela Young, owner of the Young Agency and a former employer of Smith, sued Rogers for defamation and false light invasion of privacy. The Young Agency is a modeling agency representing models and actors, most of whom are children.
The Court of Appeals overturned the lower court in a split decision in December, entering summary judgement for Rogers. Now the state’s high court will decide.
Young’s attorneys asked the appellate court if a political candidate can be liable for defaming a third party while attacking a political opponent. They argued there has not been another state case on the issue.
Rogers attorneys argued the litigation will chill political speech and keep politicians from addressing their opponents’ employers.
“The First Amendment’s protection for political speech is irreconcilable with a rule that friends, employers, and acquaintances of a political candidate can force a jury trial simply by stating a theoretically possible defamatory implication,” the attorneys said in a petition to deny review. “The chilling effect of adopting Plaintiffs’ rule would be catastrophic.”
The state’s high court has not yet set a date for oral arguments.
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