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The Velveteen Ocelot

(115,660 posts)
7. It's a perfect slander case.
Fri Mar 2, 2012, 06:38 PM
Mar 2012

He called her a "slut" and a "prostitute." In defamation cases, there are four kinds of false statements that are traditionally considered "slander per se," which means that you don't even have to prove damages because the statements are so negative that damages are presumed. These are: (1) that the person (the plaintiff) has committed a serious crime; (2) that the person suffers from a "loathsome disease" (at common law, this usually meant something like syphilis or leprosy); (3) that the person was incompetent in his business, trade or craft; and (4) that the person, if a woman, is "unchaste." Sandra Fluke is a law student. This stuff is certainly fresh in her mind. She has a slam-dunk case - if she wants to tangle with Rush Limbaugh, which would be a particularly unpleasant sort of mud-wrestling.

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