{
  "title": "Incidents: insult and defamation laws, state or province level, head of government John Patterson",
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        "rsf": {
          "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
          "year": 2026,
          "rank": 64,
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          "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180",
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      "slug": "1960-us-montgomery-commissioner-sues-new-york-times-for-libel",
      "title": "United States: Montgomery, Alabama commissioner sues The New York Times for libel over a civil rights advertisement",
      "occurred_on": "1960-01-01",
      "occurred_on_precision": "year",
      "country": "US",
      "country_name": "United States",
      "continent": "north-america",
      "jurisdiction": "US-NY",
      "level": "state_or_province",
      "tactic_primary": "lawsuits_against_press",
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        "lawsuits_against_press"
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      "leader_slug": "john-patterson",
      "leader_name": "John Patterson",
      "issue_of_the_day": "The advertisement had described police actions against civil rights demonstrators who supported the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. in Montgomery, and Sullivan, who supervised the police department, considered the description a reflection on him personally.",
      "outcome": "reversed",
      "outcome_on": "1964-03-09",
      "outcome_note": "The Supreme Court of the United States reversed the Alabama libel judgment on March 9, 1964, and remanded the case for further proceedings consistent with its opinion.",
      "stage": "punish",
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        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 64,
        "of": 180,
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        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
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      "era": "1960s",
      "granularity": "anchor",
      "status": "historical",
      "case_count": 0,
      "summary": "L. B. Sullivan, an elected Montgomery, Alabama city commissioner who supervised the police department, sued The New York Times for libel over a 1960 civil rights advertisement and won a $500,000 jury verdict. On March 9, 1964, the Supreme Court of the United States reversed the judgment, ruling that a public official cannot recover libel damages over criticism of official conduct without proving the statement was made with actual malice.",
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  "license": {
    "name": "CC BY 4.0",
    "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
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