Sure, a president can sue the press. But can he win?

Can a president sue a media outlet for libel and win

President Trump is trying to find out. President Trump is no stranger to filing lawsuits

against media outlets, but he's never won, only settled before a verdict

if not seeing his case dismissed. The last president to successfully sue a media outlet

was Teddy Roosevelt in 1913. President Trump most recently sued the Wall Street Journal, Rupert Murdoch and several others for $10 billion for defamation

He's also recently settled lawsuits with ABC News and CBS News, which the president considers a

victory in its own right. We spoke with attorney Jeffrey Robbins, who has tried defamation cases

both on behalf of public figures and the media. You do have what seems to me a strategy

a purposeful strategy of trying to intimidate media organizations into diluting their coverage

hedging their coverage, altering their coverage, softening their coverage, pick your adjective

And, you know, he feels as though he's gotten results and he has

The president has said he wants to make it easier to successfully sue press organizations

That would likely mean overturning the famous 1964 Supreme Court case, the New York Times

versus Sullivan. That granted journalists some of the world's strongest legal protections and puts the burden

of proof on the plaintiff. Prior to that decision, all that a public figure had to do was to show that the defendant

let say a media defendant was negligent in publishing a false statement In the advent of New York Times versus Sullivan however the standard has changed And now a public figure has to show not only the ordinary elements of a

defamation case, that there was a false statement of fact that defamed him or her and did him or her

damage. But now that public figure has to show that the publication, the publisher, published

with actual malice. The president is no stranger to suing the media. He or his businesses have

filed 20 media or defamation cases since announcing his first presidential campaign

He's estimated to have filed 4,000 lawsuits throughout his lifetime. He may also have some

well-positioned allies if he does try to overturn Sullivan. Supreme Court Justices Clarence Thomas

and Neil Gorsuch have shown support for overturning the ruling. Robbins also pointed to another

argument to overturn Sullivan, the drastic change in the media landscape since the 1960s

even since the signing of the Constitution. The First Amendment was enacted at a time when we

were talking about small mom and pop printers. We no longer have that. We have massive multi-billion

dollar conglomerates with a huge amount of power and the power easily to destroy someone's

reputation. Robin says that journalists these days have a lot to worry about, reducing content

in a 24-7 news cycle, worrying about clicks and shares, and that can lead to mistakes

which could become big legal problems if Sullivan is overturned. You can read legal reporter Ava

Federally's full report by downloading the Straight Arrow News mobile app today or going to san.com