An Arizona appeals court has upheld a jury's $600,000 judgment in favor of a rancher in a defamation lawsuit, rejecting an environmental group's argument that documents it posted on the Internet were shielded by the First Amendment.Well, they were public records, but they were also bogus:
The Court of Appeals upheld a Pima County Superior Court jury's award of compensatory and punitive damages to Jim Chilton in his lawsuit against the Center for Biological Diversity, a nonprofit with offices in Arizona, California, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington, D.C.
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The environmental group argued that the documents were shielded by state and federal constitutional protections for the right to petition the government over grievances because the appeal and photographs submitted with it were public records related to official proceedings.
The trial jury found the center made false statements in photo captions, including one that implied that grazing by Chilton's cattle was responsible for damage actually caused by hundreds of people, including the photographer, who attended a May Day festival.Nothing like a Gaia worshipper hootenanny to bring out the best.
Speaking of ecoweenies and making it up, I don't know about you, but we've sure had a shortage of global warming around here lately. It was so cold yesterday that I was actually wishing that Al Gore and Barbara Boxer would stop by so I could hook Al up to the heater in the barn and Babs to the gas log in the fireplace. Yeah, the smell might be bad, but I'm willing to do my bit to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
