# Claim 824

Under Alabama law as it stood before the Supreme Court's ruling, Sullivan needed only to show the advertisement contained errors that could have harmed his reputation.

Published 2026-09-26. Last reviewed 2026-09-26. 1 source.

- Statement: Under Alabama law as it stood before the Supreme Court's ruling, Sullivan needed only to show the advertisement contained errors that could have harmed his reputation.
- Field: stated_justification
- Value: Alabama libel standard before the ruling
- About: [incident 1960-us-montgomery-commissioner-sues-new-york-times-for-libel](https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1960-us-montgomery-commissioner-sues-new-york-times-for-libel)
- Source: New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964). https://firstamendment.mtsu.edu/article/new-york-times-co-v-sullivan/
- Publisher: The First Amendment Encyclopedia, Middle Tennessee State University
- Method: outlet report
- Checked: 2026-09-26
- Confidence: medium
- Status: current
- Source date: 2023-08-06

## Quotation from the source

> Under Alabama law, Sullivan only needed to prove that there were mistakes and that they likely harmed his reputation.

Source page: https://thewaronnews.com/claims/824. The War On News, CC BY 4.0.