See post #7
. . . but again, Wouldnt stand up in court is in the subjunctive mood. What we need to be able to say is that it did not stand up in court - meaning that
- it got to court, and that
- the plaintiff who sued for libel prevailed in court.
My #44 asserts that SCOTUS has a legitimate way of both accepting the case - in the teeth of the unanimous 1964 Warren Court claim in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan that 1A denigrated the right of officials to sue for libel - and finding for the plaintiff once there.