Freeper lawsuit?

[jbm]

Sorry if this is a dupe,but I stumbled across it and it amused me that they've been labeled a 'hate group'.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/987378/posts

<snip>PRESS RELEASE

At 9:10 a.m. today, Free Republic LLC filed a Notice of Claim with the City of Fresno, arising from the Human Relations Commission’s news release of September 12, 2003, labeling it a "hate group." A copy of the Notice of Claim, without exhibits, is attached hereto.


The Notice of Claim, which is a legally required first step in filing a lawsuit against a public entity, puts the City of Fresno on notice that Free Republic LLC intends to file a lawsuit for defamation against (1) the City of Fresno, (2) the Human Relations Commission, and (3) Debbie Reyes, Chair of the Human Relations Commission.

<snip>

[Ohio Dem]

1. If the shoe fits...

I thought freepers hated lawsuits and lawyers. Babies.

[alphafemale]

2. LOL! 'bout time somebody called them on it!

[bicentennial_baby]

3. They're suing the City of Fresno for $1,000,000?

"Claimant seeks general damages for loss of reputation, shame and mortification. Claimant seeks special damages with respect to damages it has suffered to its business, trade, profession or occupation. Finally, claimant requests exemplary damages for the sake of example and by way of punishing the responsible public employees/agents for making the defamatory Publications with actual malice. Claimant is informed and believes, and thereon alleges that the public employees/agents possessed a state of mind arising from the ill will toward the claimant, and did not have a good faith belief in the truth of the defamatory Publications. Accordingly, the acts of public employees were made with actual malice, and were fraudulent and justify the imposition of punitive damages.


Claimant’s damages are currently unknown, but are anticipated to be well in excess of $1,000,000, but regardless, are in excess of the minimal jurisdictional limits of an unlimited civil case."

[Don_G]

4. Oh That One

I thought you meant the one where the Onion caught them posting entire articles on the Free Republic.

It's sad to say, but more than a few Freepers thought the articles were more accurate than the LA Times and the Washington Post. Dosen't say much for their intellegence, does it?

[bunk76]

5. Question for D.U......

lawyers, do they have a case? Never buy socialist UAW cars,these kids are a study in idiocy.

:evilgrin:

[zekeson]

6. I bet if you could stomach it you could go into the Freep archives

and find that they wore the claim of the city with pride, as a badge of honor. Bullshit it hurts their 'mark - it just increases their traffice. Labeling FR as a hate group is like turning on a light in my old apt - the cock roaches just start scurrying on home - in this case to Freep land.

[Bake]

7. Truth is an absolute defense to defamation

In other words, it's not libel/slander if what you say about them is the truth, end of case. If I were the city's attorney, I would pull some quotes from freeperland and put 'em up on big 3 x 5 (feet) easel exhibits in the courtroom. Not just the ones where they refer to "Klintoon" and "Hitlery" but the ones where they talk about all Dems being traitors and deserving to die and stuff like that. The really vile stuff. Lord knows there's plenty of it there.

It's also hard to see where they've been damaged. Since I don't see this as a case of libel per se, they would have to prove actual damages. I suspect that's going to be hard to do. No damages, no case.

Bake

[Gman]

8. What was all that about lawsuit abuse

and frivilous suits? The nut case rightwing are the biggest abusers of the court system.

[Spoon]

9. All jokes (and FR hypocricy) aside,

I think they have a strong case. DU could just as easy be in the same boat. They punish abusers that cross the "line" as they do here. That line is obviously not the same line, but one that punishes racist and dangerous remarks. FR being called a "hate group" by a government could be laughable, if it wasn't so scary.

[Jolene]

10. If you're not with us, you're agin' us

Sounds like a little bit of 'hair of the dog' if you ask me.

For a tiny little speck of a website to claim that government shouldn't label them a 'hate group' in this post 9/11 era is so incredibly laughable.

We've got the feds (because the republicans don't want the government's hands tied when fighting terrorism) throwing people in Gitmo, denying them counsel, and throwing away the key.

What is even more laughable, is that FR claims loss of income. From WHAT?

The freeps don't know it, but they're opening up a can of worms that could get every political site on the web shut down. The government has been determining what defines a 'hate group' ever since 9/11, and it was WITH freep blessing.

They only care when it affects them. Sometimes, what we wish for the most, comes back and bites us in the asses. This court case may determine the fate of all message boards. If the freeps think for one moment that the government is going to loosen their grip on the citizenry, just because their whiny little asses are in a snit, they've got an eye-opener coming.

Dumb shits.