Free Republic

On what planet is it right to punish the innocent in a quixotic effort to curb campus rape?Unfortunately, it’s a-okay in the bizarro world that is Capitol Hill. Democrat Colorado Rep. Jared Polis earned roaring applause on Thursday when the lawmaker declared it is just to expel all students — regardless of guilt — who are accused of sexual assault.“I mean, if there’s 10 people that have been accused and under a reasonable likelihood standard maybe one or two did it, seems better to get rid of all 10 people,” Polis said at a House hearing on campus sexual assault....

NEW YORK--Three University of Virginia graduates on Wednesday filed a defamation lawsuit in New York against Rolling Stone magazine, its publisher Wenner Media and a journalist over a now-debunked 2014 article describing a fraternity gang rape. The three men, all 2013 graduates and members of Phi Kappa Psi, the fraternity at the center of the story, claim the magazine was negligent in publishing an article entitled "A Rape on Campus" by Sabrina Rudin Erdely. They are seeking damages for defamation and infliction of emotional distress. Rolling Stone apologized in December for "discrepancies" in the account, after the story sparked a...

RICHMOND, Va. — A University of Virginia associate dean sued Rolling Stone magazine on Tuesday for more than $7.5 million, saying a debunked and retracted account of an alleged gang rape on campus cast her as the “chief villain.”... A report published by the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism said Rolling Stone failed at virtually every step of the process, from the reporting by Sabrina Rubin Erdely to an editing process that included high-ranking staffers.... No one at Rolling Stone was fired or disciplined as a result of the article, titled “A Rape on Campus.” Rolling Stone Managing Editor Will...

<p>The University of Virginia chapter of Phi Kappa Psi announced Monday that the fraternity house will file a lawsuit against Rolling Stone, calling the magazine’s reporting that described an alleged gang-rape by some of its members “reckless.”</p> <p>The lawsuit comes a day after Rolling Stone editors retracted a Nov. 19 story “A Rape on Campus,” that portrayed the chilling account of brutal sexual assault allegedly occurring in the Phi Kappa Psi house at U-Va. in 2012. A Columbia University report issued Sunday described significant lapses by the magazine’s staff while reporting the gang-rape allegations and the story’s writer, Sabrina Rubin Erdely, and the publication’s managing editor, Will Dana, apologized for the deeply flawed account. But the fraternity noted that Erdely did not apologize directly to the Phi Psi chapter at U-Va.</p>

The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity at the University of Virginia said Monday that it is moving forward with a possible lawsuit against Rolling Stone magazine in the wake of the now-retracted "Rape on Campus" article. "After 130 days of living under a cloud of suspicion as a result of reckless reporting by Rolling Stone magazine, today the Virginia Alpha Chapter of Phi Kappa Psi announced plans to pursue all available legal action against the magazine," the fraternity said in a statement. A spokesman for the fraternity said there has not yet been a formal decision about when a lawsuit will...

Jackie has a lawyer. Palma Pustilnik, an attorney at Charlottesville's Central Virginia Legal Aid Society, said Wednesday morning that she'd been retained as counsel by the woman at the center of a Rolling Stone account depicting a gang rape at a University of Virginia fraternity house. The magazine revealed Friday that it found "discrepancies" in Jackie's account and said its "trust in her was misplaced." The fraternity tied to the allegation, Phi Kappa Psi, has said it found no evidence to support her claims and several key facts in the story were refuted by records.

Several readers have asked: If the Rolling Stone article describing the alleged gang rape of a UVA student at a Phi Kappa Psi fraternity party is materially false, could the Rolling Stone be successfully sued for libel? This is a good illustration of some important libel law principles, so I thought I’d write about it.