In The Satanic Temple, Inc. v. Newsweek Magazine LLC, (SD NY, March 8, 2023), a defamation suit by The Satanic Temple (TST) over a Newsweek article about it, a New York federal district court concluded that TST is not a limited purpose public figure for purposes of defamation law. The court said in part:
,,, Plaintiff “advocates for the religious rights of its membership, and must sometimes take legal action to protect those rights.... Defendants contend that this activity is sufficient to make Plaintiff a limited purpose public figure because the “advocacy tends to attract attention.”...
But attention alone is not enough. Plaintiff must have “invited public attention to [its] views in an effort to influence others.” ... Defendants offer no evidence to show that Plaintiff “openly invited media attention,” by “issuing press releases, making public statements [or] addressing ‘open letters.’”... Plaintiff initiated lawsuits for the sole purpose of protecting the religious rights of its members, not to influence the minds of others. One does not voluntarily inject itself into a public controversy simply by filing a lawsuit to vindicate its rights, even if doing so incidentally attracts public attention.
Nevertheless, the court found that most of the statements cited by TST were not defamatory. Only a statement claiming that TST covered up sexual abuse survived the motion to dismiss. Volokh Conspiracy reports on the decision.
