#libel law

Great question! Hamilton was strongly in favor of a free and rigorous press as a check on abuses of power.  As he explained in his oral argument in People v. Croswell, “The Liberty of the Press consists, in my idea, in publishing the truth, from good motives, and for justifiable ends, though it reflect on the government, on magistrates, or individuals.” The purpose of a free press, he continued, was to “give us early alarm and put us on our guard against encroachments of power. This, then, is a right of utmost importance, one for which, instead of yielding it up, we ought rather to spill our blood.”

The Sedition Act was aimed at libel against the government and it’s representatives–libel meaning false statements that might tend to reduce faith in the government for no reason. Vicious, unsubstantiated lies told too often might even confuse the public. How would they know when in fact a serious breach of public confidence had been committed, if the press constantly published salacious rumors or outright made up stories? Hamilton himself invoked the Sedition Act after a story surfaced that he was trying to raise money to sink the Jeffersonian paper, “Aurora”. In a letter to Josiah Ogden Hoffman, dated 6 November 1799, Hamilton argued:

A bolder calumny; one more absolutely destitute of foundation was never propagated. And its dangerous tendency needs no comment; being calculated to inspire the belief that the Independence and liberty of the press are endangered by the intrigues of ambitious citizens and by foreign gold. In so flagrant a case the force of the laws must be tried. I therefore request that you will take immediate measures towards the prosecution of the persons who conduct the inclosed paper.

The falsity of the story was the crux of the problem.

As Hamilton argued, Harry Croswell would have stood a better chance had he been prosecuted under the Sedition Act, because it explicitly allow the truth of a statement as a defense. Croswell was the editor of the Wasp, a newspaper associated with the Federalist Party. He was charged with libel against Thomas Jefferson for publishing an article stating Jefferson had paid James Callender to write negative stories about George Washington and John Adams, and he was  tried under New York common law. As the judge in the trial court applied the common law, though, the prosecution need only establish that the story reflected negatively on Jefferson’s reputation, and that Croswell had published it. No consideration was given to whether the story was true, or the public had a right to know the defamatory information about the current President of the United States.

By now, we all know that Donald Trump is the master of the lawsuit, having been involved in over 4,000 of them in his 70+ years on earth.  Just for kicks, let’s assume that he didn’t start suing and being sued until after his daddy bought him that degree from Wharton School of Business, around age 23.  That still means that this ‘man’ has averaged 83 lawsuits per year!!!  And to further carry it…