Time, Inc. v. Firestone

Supreme Court of the United States

Argued October 14, 1975
Decided March 2, 1976

Full case name

Time, Inc. v. Mary Alice Firestone

Citations

424 U.S. 448 (more)

Prior history

Florida state court grants $100,000 libel claim for the respondent. Florida Supreme Court affirms.

Holding

Mary Firestone can collect libel damages from Time, Inc., because she was not a public figure. She had no special prominence in societal affairs, nor did she thrust herself into a controversy to influence its resolution.

Court membership

Chief Justice Warren E. Burger

Associate Justices William J. Brennan, Jr. · Potter Stewart Byron White · Thurgood Marshall Harry Blackmun · Lewis F. Powell, Jr. William Rehnquist · John P. Stevens

Case opinions

Majority

Rehnquist, joined by Burger, Stewart, Blackmun, Powell

Concurrence

Powell, joined by Stewart

Dissent

Brennan

Dissent

White

Dissent

Marshall

Laws applied

U.S. Const. Amend. I; U.S. Const. Amend. XIV; New York Times, Co. v. Sullivan (376 U.S. 254)

Time, Inc. v. Firestone, 424 U.S. 448 (1976), was a U.S. Supreme Court case concerning defamation suits against public figures.

Background

Mary Alice Firestone was married to Russell A. Firestone, Jr., an heir to the Firestone Tire and Rubber Company family fortune. Mary filed for divorce, and Russell submitted a counterclaim on the grounds of extreme cruelty and adultery. The judge granted the divorce but discounted much of the evidence concerning extramarital affairs. Nevertheless, Time, Inc., publisher of the weekly news magazine Time, ran an article one week after the divorce was granted, mentioning the alleged affairs. In the "Milestones" section of Time, the news of the Firestones’ divorce was published as follows: "DIVORCED. By Russell A. Firestone Jr., 41, heir to the tire fortune: Mary Alice Sullivan Firestone, 32, his third wife; a onetime Palm Beach schoolteacher; on grounds of extreme cruelty and adultery; after six years of marriage, one son; in West Palm Beach, Fla. The 17-month intermittent trial produced enough testimony of extramarital adventures on both sides, said the judge, 'to make Dr. Freud's hair curl.'”^[1]

Following the publication, Mary Firestone filed suit in a Florida state court against Time, Inc., seeking $100,000 in damages for libel.

Court cases

Time alleged that Mary was a public figure and could not recover damages based on the ruling of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, which protected media from liability in such suits except in cases where there is knowledge of falsity or a reckless disregard for truth. Both the state court and Florida Supreme Court ruled that Mary was not a public figure, using language defined in Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. (1974).

Decision

In a 5-3 decision, with Justice Stevens abstaining, the Supreme Court ruled that Mary was not a public figure and upheld the Florida Supreme Court's decision.

Public funding	Everson v. Board of Education (1947) McCollum v. Board of Education (1948) Walz v. Tax Commission of the City of New York (1970) Lemon v. Kurtzman (1971) Tilton v. Richardson (1971) Committee for Public Education & Religious Liberty v. Nyquist (1973) Sloan v. Lemon (1973) Wolman v. Walter (1977) Marsh v. Chambers (1983) Mueller v. Allen (1983) Aguilar v. Felton (1985) Board of Education of Kiryas Joel Village School District v. Grumet (1994) Agostini v. Felton (1997) Mitchell v. Helms (2000) Zelman v. Simmons-Harris (2002) Locke v. Davey (2004) Arizona Christian School Tuition Organization v. Winn (2011)

Public displays	Stone v. Graham (1980) Lynch v. Donnelly (1984) Board of Trustees of Scarsdale v. McCreary (1985) County of Allegheny v. ACLU (1989) McCreary County v. ACLU of Kentucky (2005) Van Orden v. Perry (2005) Pleasant Grove City v. Summum (2009)

School prayer	Zorach v. Clauson (1952) Engel v. Vitale (1962) Abington School District v. Schempp (1963) Stone v. Graham (1980) Wallace v. Jaffree (1985) Lee v. Weisman (1992) Santa Fe Independent School District v. Doe (2000) Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow (2004)

Creationism	Epperson v. Arkansas (1968) Edwards v. Aguillard (1987) Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District (M.D. Pa. 2005)

Legislature prayer	Marsh v. Chambers (1983) Town of Greece v. Galloway (2014)

Establishment Clause, Other	McGowan v. Maryland (1961) Walz v. Tax Commission of the City of New York (1970) McDaniel v. Paty (1978) Widmar v. Vincent (1981) Larkin v. Grendel's Den, Inc. (1982) Estate of Thornton v. Caldor, Inc. (1985) Texas Monthly, Inc. v. Bullock (1989)

Free Exercise Clause

Vidal v. Girard's Executors (1844)
Reynolds v. United States (1879)
Davis v. Beason (1890)
Schneider v. New Jersey (1939)
Cantwell v. Connecticut (1940)
Minersville School District v. Gobitis (1940)
Murdock v. Pennsylvania (1943)
United State v. Ballard (1944)
Braunfeld v. Brown (1961)
Torcaso v. Watkins (1961)
Sherbert v. Verner (1963)
Presbyterian Church v. Hull Church (1969)
Wisconsin v. Yoder (1972)
NLRB v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago (1979)
Harris v. McRae (1980)
Thomas v. Review Board of the Indiana Employment Security Division (1981)
United States v. Lee (1982)
Bob Jones University v. United States (1983)
Bowen v. Roy (1986)
Goldman v. Weinberger (1986)
Employment Division v. Smith (1990)
Church of Lukumi Babalu Aye v. City of Hialeah (1993)
City of Boerne v. Flores (1997)
Watchtower Society v. Village of Stratton (2002)
Cutter v. Wilkinson (2005)
Gonzales v. UDV (2006)

Freedom of speech (portal)

Sedition and imminent danger	Alien and Sedition Acts (1798) Masses Publishing Co. v. Patten (S.D.N.Y. 1917) Schenck v. United States (1919) Abrams v. United States (1919) Gitlow v. New York (1925) Whitney v. California (1927) Dennis v. United States (1951) Communist Party v. Subversive Activities Control Board (1955, 1961) Yates v. United States (1957) Bond v. Floyd (1966) Brandenburg v. Ohio (1969)

False speech	Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. (1974) United States v. Alvarez (2012)

Fighting words and the heckler's veto	Cantwell v. Connecticut (1940) Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942) Terminiello v. Chicago (1949) Feiner v. New York (1951) Gregory v. Chicago (1969) National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie (1977) R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul (1992) Snyder v. Phelps (2011) Elonis v. United States (2015)

Freedom of assembly and public forums	Hague v. CIO (1939) Schneider v. New Jersey (1939) Martin v. Struthers (1943) Marsh v. Alabama (1946) Niemotko v. Maryland (1951) Edwards v. South Carolina (1963) Cox v. Louisiana (1965) Brown v. Louisiana (1966) Adderley v. Florida (1966) Carroll v. Town of Princess Anne (1968) Coates v. Cincinnati (1971) Organization for a Better Austin v. Keefe (1971) Lloyd Corp. v. Tanner (1972) Pruneyard Shopping Center v. Robins (1980) Widmar v. Vincent (1981) Hill v. Colorado (2000) McCullen v. Coakley (2014)

Symbolic speech	Stromberg v. California (1931) United States v. O'Brien (1968) Cohen v. California (1971) Smith v. Goguen (1974) Texas v. Johnson (1989) United States v. Eichman (1990) Virginia v. Black (2003)

Compelled speech	Minersville School District v. Gobitis (1940) West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943) Wooley v. Maynard (1977) Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System v. Southworth (2000) Davenport v. Washington Education Association (2007) Knox v. Service Employees International Union, Local 1000 (2012) Agency for International Development v. Alliance for Open Society International, Inc. (2013)

Loyalty oaths	American Communications Association v. Douds (1950) Garner v. Board of Public Works (1951) Speiser v. Randall (1958) Keyishian v. Board of Regents (1965) Communist Party of Indiana v. Whitcomb (1974)

School speech	Minersville School District v. Gobitis (1940) West Virginia State Board of Education v. Barnette (1943) Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District (1969) Island Trees School District v. Pico (1982) Bethel School District v. Fraser (1986) Hazelwood School District v. Kuhlmeier (1988) Rosenberger v. University of Virginia (1995) Morse v. Frederick (2007)

Obscenity	Rosen v. United States (1896) United States v. One Book Called Ulysses (S.D.N.Y. 1933) Roth v. United States (1957) One, Inc. v. Olesen (1958) Marcus v. Search Warrant (1961) MANual Enterprises v. Day (1962) Jacobellis v. Ohio (1964) Quantity of Books v. Kansas (1964) Freedman v. Maryland (1965) Memoirs v. Massachusetts (1966) Redrup v. New York (1967) Ginsberg v. New York (1968) Stanley v. Georgia (1969) Cohen v. California (1971) United States v. Thirty-seven Photographs (1971) Kois v. Wisconsin (1972) Miller v. California (1973) Paris Adult Theatre I v. Slaton (1973) United States v. 12 200-ft. Reels of Film (1973) Jenkins v. Georgia (1974) Erznoznik v. City of Jacksonville (1975) Young v. American Mini Theatres (1976) New York v. Ferber (1982) American Booksellers v. Hudnut (7th Cir., 1985) Renton v. Playtime Theatres, Inc. (1986) Osborne v. Ohio (1990) United States v. X-Citement Video (1994) Reno v. American Civil Liberties Union (1997) United States v. Playboy Entertainment Group (2000) Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (2002) Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union (2002) Nitke v. Gonzales (S.D.N.Y., 2005) United States v. Williams (2008) FCC v. Fox Televisions Stations - 2 cases (2009 and 2012) American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression v. Strickland (6th Cir., 2009) United States v. Kilbride (9th Cir., 2009) United States v. Stevens (2010) Brown v. Entertainment Merchants Association (2011)

Public employees	Pickering v. Board of Education (1968) Perry v. Sindermann (1972) Board of Regents of State Colleges v. Roth (1972) Mt. Healthy City School District Board of Education v. Doyle (1977) Givhan v. Western Line Consolidated School District (1979) Connick v. Myers (1983) Rankin v. McPherson (1987) Waters v. Churchill (1994) Garcetti v. Ceballos (2006) Borough of Duryea v. Guarnieri (2011) Heffernan v. City of Paterson (2016)

Hatch Act and similar laws	Ex parte Curtis (1882) United Public Workers v. Mitchell (1947) United States Civil Service Commission v. National Association of Letter Carriers (1973) Broadrick v. Oklahoma (1973)

Licensing and restriction of speech	Mutual Film Corporation v. Industrial Commission of Ohio (1915) Joseph Burstyn, Inc. v. Wilson (1952) Freedman v. Maryland (1965) Virginia State Pharmacy Board v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council (1976) Hoffman Estates v. The Flipside, Hoffman Estates, Inc. (1982) Walker v. Texas Division, Sons of Confederate Veterans (2015)

Commercial speech	Valentine v. Chrestensen (1942) Rowan v. U.S. Post Office Dept. (1970) Pittsburgh Press Co. v. Pittsburgh Commission on Human Relations (1973) Bigelow v. Commonwealth of Virginia (1974) Virginia State Pharmacy Board v. Virginia Citizens Consumer Council (1976) Bates v. State Bar of Arizona (1977) Linmark Associates, Inc. v. Willingboro (1977) Ohralik v. Ohio State Bar Ass’n (1978) Friedman v. Rogers (1979) Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp. v. Public Service Commission (1980) Consol. Edison Co. v. Public Serv. Comm'n (1980) Bolger v. Youngs Drug Products (1983) Zauderer v. Office of Disciplinary Counsel (1985) Pacific Gas & Electric Co. v. Public Utilities Commission of California (1986) Posadas de Puerto Rico Associates v. Tourism Company of Puerto Rico (1986) San Francisco Arts & Athletics, Inc. v. United States Olympic Committee (1987) 44 Liquormart, Inc. v. Rhode Island (1996)

Campaign finance and political speech	Buckley v. Valeo (1976) First National Bank of Boston v. Bellotti (1978) Citizens Against Rent Control v. City of Berkeley (1981) California Medical Association v. FEC (1981) Brown v. Socialist Workers '74 Campaign Committee (1982) Regan v. Taxation with Representation of Washington (1983) FEC v. National Conservative Political Action Committee (1985) FEC v. Massachusetts Citizens for Life (1986) Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce (1990) McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission (1995) Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee v. FEC (1996) Nixon v. Shrink Missouri Government PAC (2000) FEC v. Colorado Republican Federal Campaign Committee (2001) Republican Party of Minnesota v. White (2002) McConnell v. FEC (2003) FEC v. Beaumont (2003) Randall v. Sorrell (2006) FEC v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc. (2007) Davis v. FEC (2008) Citizens United v. FEC (2010) McComish v. Bennett (2011) American Tradition Partnership v. Bullock (2012) McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission (2014) Williams-Yulee v. The Florida Bar (2015)

Freedom of the press

Prior restraints and censorship	Near v. Minnesota (1931) Lovell v. City of Griffin (1938) Hannegan v. Esquire (1946) New York Times Co. v. United States (1971) Miami Herald Publishing Co. v. Tornillo (1974) Nebraska Press Assn. v. Stuart (1976) Tory v. Cochran (2005)

Privacy	Time, Inc. v. Hill (1967) Cox Broadcasting Corp. v. Cohn (1975) Florida Star v. B. J. F. (1989)

Taxation and privileges	Grosjean v. American Press Co. (1936) Branzburg v. Hayes (1972) Minneapolis Star Tribune Company v. Commissioner (1983)

Defamation	Beauharnais v. Illinois (1952) New York Times Co. v. Sullivan (1964) Curtis Publishing Co. v. Butts (1967) Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. (1974) Time, Inc. v. Firestone (1976) Bose Corp. v. Consumers Union of United States, Inc. (1984) Dun & Bradstreet, Inc. v. Greenmoss Builders, Inc. (1985) McDonald v. Smith (1985) Hustler Magazine v. Falwell (1988) Harte-Hanks Communications v. Connaughton (1989) Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co. (1990) Obsidian Finance Group, LLC v. Cox (9th Cir., 2014)

Broadcast media	Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC (1969) FCC v. Pacifica Foundation (1978) Turner Broadcasting v. FCC (1994) Bartnicki v. Vopper (2001)

Freedom of association

Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee v. McGrath (1951) Watkins v. United States (1957) NAACP v. Alabama (1958) Baggett v. Bullitt (1964) In re Primus (1978) Roberts v. United States Jaycees (1984) Hurley v. Irish-American Gay, Lesbian, & Bisexual Group of Boston (1995) Boy Scouts of America v. Dale (2000)

References

↑ "Milestones: Dec. 22, 1967". Time. 1967-12-22. ISSN 0040-781X. Retrieved 2015-11-19.

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Time, Inc. v. Firestone

Background

Court cases

Decision

See also

References