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CS wins First Amend­ment appeal in de­fam­a­tion case against me­dia de­fend­ant

December 31, 2009

The Texas Court of Ap­peals for the First Dis­trict (Hou­s­ton) today is­sued a land­mark 29-page opin­ion af­firm­ing the dis­trict court's deni­al of a news­pa­per's mo­tion for sum­mary judg­ment on First Amend­ment grounds in a de­fam­a­tion case brought by the son of the chief deputy sher­iff of Fort Bend County.

This is the first time in more than a dec­ade that a Texas Court of Ap­peals has ruled against a me­dia de­fend­ant in a de­fam­a­tion case. Coun­sel for the news­pa­per were Jack­son Walk­er LLP, the firm that rep­res­ents Oprah and that main­tains the most fam­ous First Amend­ment prac­tice in Texas.

Joe Sib­ley ar­gued the ap­peal. Joe Sib­ley and K.A.D. Ca­mara pre­pared the briefs.