Supreme Court Will Not Weigh In On Billionaire’s Case Against Press Protections
The Supreme Court declined on Monday to take up a case challenging long-standing protections for the press that was brought by billionaire Las Vegas hotelier Steve Wynn.
In his case against The Associated Press, Wynn had sought to overturn New York Times v. Sullivan, a landmark Supreme Court decision that set a high legal bar for what constitutes defamation against a public figure in the United States.
The 1964 precedent bolsters the ability of the press to hold wealthy and high-powered individuals to account. To win a defamation suit, a public figure must show that the outlet either published something it knew to be false, or went ahead with reckless disregard for whatever the truth may be — a standard known as “actual malice.”
The high court denied the billionaire’s request for its review without comment.
President Donald Trump has waged a nearly decade-long battle against the free press, recently going so far as to call for the shuttering of CNN and MSNBC. Trump has a strong ally against press protections in Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who wrote in 2023 that the Sullivan case allows news organizations to “cast false aspersions on public figures with near impunity.”
But the Supreme Court will not overturn Sullivan on the merits of Wynn’s case.
His complaint stemmed from a 2018 article by a reporter working for The Associated Press’ Las Vegas bureau about allegations of sexual abuse from the 1970s. One woman said she had a child with Wynn after he allegedly sexually assaulted her, while another woman alleged she was forced to leave a job after refusing sex with Wynn.
Wynn has denied the accusations.
