{
  "slug": "john-patterson",
  "name": "John Patterson",
  "office": null,
  "role": "Governor of Alabama",
  "country": "US",
  "actor_url": "https://thewaronnews.com/actors/john-patterson",
  "incident_count": 1,
  "incidents": [
    {
      "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",
      "tactics": [
        "insult_and_defamation_laws",
        "lawsuits_against_press"
      ],
      "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",
      "ladder_note": null,
      "rsf": {
        "index": "RSF World Press Freedom Index",
        "year": 2026,
        "rank": 64,
        "of": 180,
        "label": "RSF 2026 rank: 64th of 180",
        "source_url": "https://rsf.org/en/index"
      },
      "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.",
      "url": "https://thewaronnews.com/incidents/1960-us-montgomery-commissioner-sues-new-york-times-for-libel"
    }
  ],
  "downloads": {
    "csv": "https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/john-patterson?format=csv",
    "json": "https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/john-patterson.json",
    "md": "https://thewaronnews.com/leaders/john-patterson.md"
  },
  "license": {
    "name": "CC BY 4.0",
    "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"
  }
}