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57 Syracuse L. Rev. 157 (2006-2007)
Injunctions in Defamation Cases

handle is hein.journals/syrlr57 and id is 165 raw text is: INJUNCTIONS IN DEFAMATION CASES
Erwin Chemerinskyt
CONTENTS
INTRO D UCTION  .......................................................................................... 157
I.     INJUNCTIONS IN DEFAMATION CASES: THE EXAMPLE OF TORY
V.  C O CH RAN   ..................................................................................... 158
II.    INJUNCTIONS IN DEFAMATION CASES ARE INHERENTLY AN
UNCONSTITUTIONAL PRIOR RESTRAINT ......................................... 163
A. Injunctions Are Prior Restraints ..................... 163
B. Injunctions    Are    Unconstitutional   as  a   Remedy     in
D efam ation  Cases .................................................................... 166
1. Permanent Injunctions Historically Have Not Been a
Permissible Remedy in Defamation Actions ...................... 167
2. Damages Are a Sufficient Remedy for Plaintiffs in
D efam ation  Cases .............................................................. 168
3. Effective   Injunctions   in  Defamation     Cases   Are
Inherently Overbroad and Inevitably Put Courts in the
Role of Being Perpetual Censors Determining Whether
Speech  Can  O ccur  ............................................................ 171
C O N CLU SION  .............................................................................................. 172
INTRODUCTION
Is an injunction a permissible remedy in a defamation case? The
traditional answer is that equity will not enjoin a defamation,' but an
t Alston & Bird Professor of Law, Duke University School of Law. Also, served as
counsel to Ulysses Tory and Ruth Craft in the United States Supreme Court in Tory v.
Cochran, 544 U.S. 734 (2005) and for Anne Lemen in the California Supreme Court in
Balboa Island Vill. Inn v. Lemen, 102 P.3d 904 (Cal. 2004). 1 am especially grateful to my
co-counsel in these cases, Jean-Paul Jassy, for all of his extraordinary efforts and for making
working on these cases such a pleasure.
1. See RODNEY SMOLLA, LAW OF DEFAMATION § 9:85 (2d ed. 1999); Michael 1.
Meyerson, The Neglected History of the Prior Restraint Doctrine: Rediscovering the Link
Between the First Amendment and Separation of Powers, 34 IND. L. REv. 295, 308-11, 324-
30 (2001).

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