Sarah Palin overturned a judge's erroneous decisions and kept defamation lawsuit she lost twice going - only to end it

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: Law & Crime

Mar 17th, 2026, 10:30 am


Former Republican governor of Alaska and onetime candidate for vice president Sarah Palin quietly walked away from her appeal of her second trial loss to the New York Times, bringing a nearly nine-year saga and defamation lawsuit to an end.

Palin's first go-round at the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals went well, as the court ripped Senior U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff for the series of "major issues" that arose at the tail end of the first trial in 2022.

The judge controversially ruled, on his own during jury deliberations, that no reasonable juror could find the Times and its former opinion editor James Bennet acted with actual malice when the 2017 editorial linked a "cross hairs" map "circulated" by Palin's political action committee, SarahPAC, to the 2011 mass shooting in Arizona carried out by Jared Lee Loughner, who killed six people and "grievously wound[ed] Representative Gabby Giffords," a Democrat and the wife of Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz.

While the original version of the editorial was corrected within 14 hours after publication, Palin embarked on a long and winding road to sue and challenge landmark defamation precedent, but she eventually reached a roadblock in the form of Rakoff and the jury.

Read more: https://lawandcrime.com/high-profile/sarah-palin-overturned-judge-error-to-keep-suing-new-york-times-but-brings-case-to-unceremonious-end/

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Full headline: Sarah Palin overturned a judge's 'erroneous' decisions and kept defamation lawsuit she lost twice going for nearly 9 years — only to end it this way

Link to ORDER (PDF) - https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.nysd.476650/gov.uscourts.nysd.476650.271.0.pdf

REFERENCES (has earlier references) - https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143622450

[AverageOldGuy]

1. Who is this "Sarah Palin" person?

The name sounds familiar but I can't place her.

[SCantiGOP]

8. She lives on an ice floe

in the Bering Strait. Apparently lives on raw seal blubber and fantasies of relevance.

[Miguelito Loveless]

10. She used to be the epitomy

of Republican stupidity, but they have since massively upgraded.

[Vinca]

2. Maybe she's looking at bankruptcy for legal fees. The money train left her station long ago.

[Marie Marie]

3. Sounds like her. She quit in the middle of her Governorship to pursue

her 10 minutes of fame. But it sounds like she may re-file her appeal?? Who knows - she is one screwy moron.

[cstanleytech]

4. Sarah who?

[SeattleVet]

5. Oh, I remember her. Claimed she was a 'Maverick'.

And I immediately thought of this…

[ShazzieB]

6. The title is confusing me.

A higher court can overturn a decision made by a lower court. A plaintiff (which Palin was in this case) can either abide by a court's decision or appeal to a higher court. She can't/couldn't overturn anything.

[BumRushDaShow]

7. During jury deliberations for the first trial

the judge halted deliberations and dismissed the case, erroneously, per the appellate court, and the case was revived by that appellate court. It can often be hard to get a case revived once dismissed but it does happen, so I think that is what the headline was hinting at.

The "history" of the case going back 9 years can be found in the links at the OP "reference" link.

[SunSeeker]

9. The Quita from Wasilla!