Church of Scientology International v. Behar
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
238 F.3d 168 (2001)
- Written by Sharon Feldman, JD
Facts
Time magazine published a 10-page cover article entitled “Scientology: The Cult of Greed.” The article described the Church of Scientology International (CSI) (plaintiff) as a “ruthless global scam” that was “organized for the purpose of making money by means legitimate and illegitimate” and enumerated various instances of unethical practices. The article charged as instances of unethical activity that the Vancouver Stock Exchange (VSE) was a “source of funds” for CSI, that a scientologist who ran a public-relations company had “no ethics problem with engineering a hostile takeover of a firm he [was] hired to promote,” and that scientologists “take over companies, hype the stock, sell their shares, and then there’s nothing left.” CSI sued the author of the article, Richard Behar, as well as Time Inc. Magazine Co. and its parent company, Time Warner, Inc. (collectively, Time) (defendants) for libel. The district court found that no malice had been shown as to most of the allegedly libelous statements and, based on the subsidiary-meaning doctrine, dismissed the claim relating to statements about the VSE, the public-relations company, and taking over companies and hyping the stock. CSI appealed, arguing that the subsidiary-meaning doctrine was neither part of federal constitutional law nor recognized by either California or New York.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Walker, C.J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 812,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
