{"id":65462,"date":"2021-11-10T09:32:00","date_gmt":"2021-11-10T14:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rcfp.org\/?post_type=rcfp_briefs_comment&p=65462"},"modified":"2022-08-11T15:50:56","modified_gmt":"2022-08-11T19:50:56","slug":"planet-aid-inc-v-reveal","status":"publish","type":"rcfp_briefs_comment","link":"https:\/\/www.rcfp.org\/briefs-comments\/planet-aid-inc-v-reveal\/","title":{"rendered":"Planet Aid, Inc. v. Reveal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Court: <\/b>U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit<\/p>\n<p><b>Date Filed: <\/b>Nov. 3, 2021<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Update:\u00a0<\/strong>On Aug. 11, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rcfp.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/2022-08-11-Planet-Aid-v.-Reveal-Ninth-Circuit-Opinion.pdf\">affirmed<\/a> the district court’s ruling in favor of Reveal. The court found, among other things, that Planet Aid is a limited purpose public figure and that a reasonable fact finder could not find, by clear and convincing evidence, that Reveal acted with actual malice in publishing the allegedly defamatory statements.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><b>Background: <\/b>In 2016, Reveal (of the Center for Investigative Reporting) published a <a href=\"https:\/\/revealnews.org\/podcast\/alleged-cult-leader-plays-shell-game-with-us-foreign-aid\/\">series<\/a> of articles and broadcasts about Planet Aid\u2019s links to an alleged cult and its apparent misuse of taxpayer funds in connection with agricultural programs in Africa. The publication led to calls for reform and the loss of funding to the nonprofit organization, which sued Reveal for defamation in Maryland.<\/p>\n<p>Reveal succeeded in transferring the case to the Northern District Court of California, after which it filed a motion to strike under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rcfp.org\/anti-slapp-guide\/california\/\">California\u2019s anti-SLAPP law<\/a>. Following nearly two years of discovery, the district court granted Reveal\u2019s motion.<\/p>\n<p>Planet Aid appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In its brief on appeal, Planet Aid suggests that California\u2019s anti-SLAPP law should not apply in federal court.<\/p>\n<p><b>Our Position:<\/b> The Ninth Circuit should affirm the district court\u2019s decision in favor of Reveal.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Excluding California\u2019s anti-SLAPP law from federal court would deprive Californians of vital protections against claims arising out of the exercise of their First Amendment rights.<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The panel is bound to follow the Ninth Circuit\u2019s precedent holding that California\u2019s anti-SLAPP statute applies in federal court.<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Ninth Circuit precedent respects California\u2019s substantive policy determinations insofar as it requires federal courts to apply the fee-shifting provision of the state\u2019s anti-SLAPP law.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Reporters Committee filed this friend-of-the-court brief in collaboration with the law firm Gibson, Dunn, and Crutcher.<\/p>\n<p><b>Quote: <\/b>\u201cToday there is a proliferation of defamation suits against journalists and news organizations that make California\u2019s substantive protections all the more necessary. Without them, California\u2019s policy objectives would be frustrated, and core constitutional freedoms would be threatened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><b>Related: <\/b>Want to learn more about the anti-SLAPP law in your state? Check out the Reporters Committee\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rcfp.org\/anti-slapp-legal-guide\/\">Anti-SLAPP Legal Guide<\/a>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"embed-documentcloud\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"2021-11-03 -- Planet Aid v. Reveal amicus brief filed by RCFP and 32 media organizations (Hosted by DocumentCloud)\" src=\"https:\/\/embed.documentcloud.org\/documents\/21101529-2021-11-03-planet-aid-v-reveal-amicus-brief-filed-by-rcfp-and-32-media-organizations\/?title=1&embed=1\" width=\"700\" height=\"905\" style=\"border: 1px solid #aaa;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-forms allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Court: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit Date Filed: Nov. 3, 2021 Update:\u00a0On Aug. 11, 2022, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s ruling in favor of Reveal. The court found, among other things, that Planet Aid is a limited purpose public figure and that a reasonable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","categories":[9],"tags":[12282,1607,12277,11415,12281,5988,12280,12279,12278,6118],"rcfp_dg_topic":[],"rcfp_state":[],"class_list":["post-65462","rcfp_briefs_comment","type-rcfp_briefs_comment","status-publish","hentry","category-libel-and-privacy","tag-and-crutcher","tag-anti-slapp","tag-california-anti-slapp","tag-center-for-investigative-reporting","tag-dunn","tag-fee-shifting","tag-gibson","tag-planet-aid","tag-reveal","tag-u-s-court-of-appeals-for-the-ninth-circuit"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v23.9 (Yoast SEO v23.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>RCFP supports Reveal\u2019s effort to fend off defamation lawsuit<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Ninth Circuit should affirm a decision in favor of Reveal and follow precedent applying California\u2019s anti-SLAPP law in federal court.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.rcfp.org\/briefs-comments\/planet-aid-inc-v-reveal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"RCFP supports Reveal\u2019s effort to fend off defamation lawsuit\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Ninth Circuit should affirm a decision in favor of Reveal and follow precedent applying California\u2019s anti-SLAPP law in federal court.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rcfp.org\/briefs-comments\/planet-aid-inc-v-reveal\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ReportersCommittee\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-08-11T19:50:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rcfp.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Link-Card-Blue.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"5000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"2500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"RCFP supports Reveal\u2019s effort to fend off defamation lawsuit\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"The Ninth Circuit should affirm a decision in favor of Reveal and follow precedent applying California\u2019s anti-SLAPP law in federal court.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.rcfp.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/03\/Link-Card-Blue-e1724174970617.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@rcfp\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rcfp.org\/briefs-comments\/planet-aid-inc-v-reveal\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.rcfp.org\/briefs-comments\/planet-aid-inc-v-reveal\/\",\"name\":\"RCFP supports Reveal\u2019s effort to fend off defamation lawsuit\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rcfp.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2021-11-10T14:32:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-08-11T19:50:56+00:00\",\"description\":\"The Ninth Circuit should affirm a decision in favor of Reveal and follow precedent applying California\u2019s anti-SLAPP law in federal court.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rcfp.org\/briefs-comments\/planet-aid-inc-v-reveal\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.rcfp.org\/briefs-comments\/planet-aid-inc-v-reveal\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.rcfp.org\/briefs-comments\/planet-aid-inc-v-reveal\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.rcfp.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Briefs & Comments\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.rcfp.org\/briefs-comments\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Planet Aid, Inc. v. 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