Free Republic

“Defendants’ challenge to the libel verdicts consists mostly of regurgitated arguments that this Court already decided during summary judgment briefing and that can be dismissed out of hand.” Oberlin College will appeal, of course, but before has filed two post-trial motions, a Motion for Judgment Notwithstanding The Verdict (pdf.) and Motion for a New Trial (pdf.). As explained in our post, Oberlin College Seeks New Trial in Gibson’s Bakery Case, most of those motions were uninteresting rehashing of arguments previously litigated and rejected by the trial Judge John Miraldi. The only interesting part of the motions was the issue of...

The Gibson’s Bakery v. Oberlin College lawsuit has entered two post-trial phases: (1) Post-trial motions then appeals, and (2) public relations. As part of this jockeying, Oberlin College’s president Carmen Twillie Ambar has written op-eds and given interviews in which she asserts that Oberlin College was held responsible for the speech of students. This, she argues, presents a threat to campus 1st Amendment rights because it could force universities to clamp down on student speech to avoid liability. The effort to push out this theme has been well-planned and sustained, and included a FAQ information sheet for alumni. The basis...