Washington Post columnist Bob Samuelson chastises the U.S. Supreme Court majority for ducking the recent free-speech-for-business case (see Ted Frank’s post of Jul. 1, as well as Feb. 13 and May 3-5, 2002). Sample: “Just about the last people you’d want to put in charge of the First Amendment are trial lawyers, whose business is suing large companies on any available pretext. … What’s occurring here is that trial lawyers are road-testing a new form of corporate shakedown. First, advocacy groups would attack a company or industry. Next, companies would face a dilemma: be silent and let the attacks stand, or respond and face an expensive and embarrassing suit. Finally, companies that ended up in court might face a daunting standard of proof — not whether what they said was true, but whether it might be misleading.” (Robert Samuelson, “A Tax on Free Speech”, Jul. 9). Before the Court issued its ruling, interesting columns about the case also appeared from Jonathan Rauch (“Corporate Lying is Bad”, National Journal/Reason.com, Jun. 9) and Dan Kennedy (“The Silent Swoosh”, Boston Phoenix, May 2-8). Update Sept. 14: Nike settles case.
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