Free Republic

The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals Monday overruled the jury that awarded $1.8 million to former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura in a 2014 defamation case.Ventura won the award against the estate of former Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, whose memoir “American Sniper” described an altercation between him and Ventura that the former governor said did not happen. Kyle’s widow, Taya Kyle, appealed the jury’s verdict, which came after a three-week federal trial in St. Paul in July 2014.In a 2 to 1 decision, the appeals court threw out the $1.35 million awarded to Ventura for “unjust enrichment.” It ordered the...

Heavy hitters in U.S. media joined prominent First Amendment scholars to file two amicus briefs challenging last summer’s jury verdict that favored former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura in his defamation trial in St. Paul. The friend-of-the-court media brief, filed with the 8th U.S Circuit Court of Appeals, characterizes the $1.3 million jury award to Ventura as unprecedented, with no basis in common law. The scholars’ filing faults U.S. District Judge Richard Kyle’s instructions to the jury. The briefs support Taya Kyle, widow of Chris Kyle, author of the best-selling memoir “American Sniper.” Ventura’s lawyers convinced the jury in a 10-2...