Arizona Supreme Court rules newspaper can't be sued for printing Iraq letter

By: PAUL DAVENPORT - Associated Press | Friday, July 1, 2005 6:53 PM PDT ∞

PHOENIX -- The Arizona Supreme Court ruled Friday that a newspaper cannot be sued for printing a letter that suggested Americans respond to attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq by going to the nearest mosque and killing the first five Muslims they see.

The high court unanimously held that the letter to the editor was political speech protected by the First Amendment. It threw out a lawsuit accusing the Tucson Citizen of intentionally inflicting emotional distress on residents.

Two Tucson men had sued the Gannett Co. newspaper for unspecified damages after it ran the letter in 2003.

The letter frightened some area Muslims enough to keep their children home from religious schools, and protests poured into the newspaper.

Four days later, the Citizen ran an apology and said the letter's author had written a second letter to clarify that his comments referred only to military actions in combat zones.

In fighting the lawsuit, the newspaper said the letter contained no immediate physical threat to anyone and was constitutionally protected. The plaintiffs argued that the letter was a direct call to violence.

Last year, Pima County Superior Court Judge Leslie Miller had allowed the case to proceed, saying, "Clearly, reasonable minds could differ in determining whether the publication of the letter rose to the level of extreme and outrageous conduct."

On the Net:

Arizona Supreme Court: http://www.supreme.state.az.us

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