Ulysses Tory, et al. v. Johnnie L. Cochran, JR. (544 U.S. 734)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 31, 2005 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 544 U.S. 734 · 125 S. Ct. 2108
- Decided
- May 31, 2005
- Term
- October Term 2004
- Vote
- 7–2
- Majority author
- Justice Breyer
- Issue area
- First Amendment
- Disposition
- Vacated and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Liberal
Opinion excerpt
Justice Breyer delivered the opinion of the Court. Johnnie Cochran brought a state-law defamation action against petitioner Ulysses Tory. The state trial court determined that Tory (with the help of petitioner Ruth Craft and others) had engaged in unlawful defamatory activity. . It found, for example, that Tory, while claiming falsely that Cochran owed him money, had complained to the local bar association, had written Cochran threatening letters demanding $10 million, had picketed Cochran’s office holding up signs containing various insults and obscenities; and, with a group of associates, had pursued Cochran while chanting similar threats and insults. App. 88,40-41. The court concluded that Tory’s claim that Cochran owed him money was without foundation, that Tory engaged in a continuous pattern of libelous and slanderous activity, and that Tory had used false and defamatory speech to “coerce” Cochran into paying “amounts of money to which Tory was not entitled” as a “tribute” or a “premium” for “desisting” from this libelous and slanderous activity. Id., at 39, 42-48. After noting that Tory had indicated that he would continue to engage in this activity in the absence of a court order, the Superior Court issued a permanent injunction. The injunction, among other things, prohibited Tory, Craft, and their “agents” or “representatives” from “picketing,” from “displaying…
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