As the defamation case Dominion Voting Systems filed against Fox News advances, the network’s lawyers recently took a standard step and asked a judge to rule in Fox’s favor and dismiss the case. To the surprise of no one, that motion was denied late last week.
But what made the developments striking were the relevant details. NBC News reported:
A judge denied granting summary judgment to Fox News in its attempt to get Dominion Voting Systems’ $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit thrown out Friday, meaning the case will go to trial in mid-April. Delaware Superior Court Judge Eric Davis handed Dominion a major win, too, when he agreed that the challenged statements are false.
“The evidence developed in this civil proceeding demonstrates that is CRYSTAL clear that none of the Statements relating to Dominion about the 2020 election are true,” Davis wrote in his ruling. (Note, it was the judge who bolded the word “crystal” and put in all caps.)
Jonathan Peters, a media law professor at the University of Georgia, told The Washington Post that the decision was “disastrous” for Fox and it’s worth appreciating why.
On the surface, no one seriously expected the judge to grant the network’s request and throw out the case. But the lawyers tried the routine step anyway, and the fact that the case is now headed to trial was itself a setback for the network.
But at trial, the assumption was that Dominion would have to prove that the network aired false and harmful statements about the company. On Friday, the judge in the case said Dominion’s lawyers need not bother — because the evidence on this point is already clear.
“Through its extensive proof, Dominion has met its burden of showing there is no genuine issue of material fact as to falsity,” Davis wrote. “Fox therefore had the burden to show an issue of material fact existed in turn. Fox failed to meet its burden.”
In other words, there was a list of things the company and its lawyers needed to prove in…
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