Tennessee woman, ACLU win appeal in "white supremacist" defamation suit
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- A court has ruled that a Tennessee woman does not have to pay thousands of dollars to a man who she called a "white supremacist" on Facebook after she saw that his car had bumper stickers promoting a Southern nationalist group and featuring the Confederate flag.
The Tennessean reports that the Tennessee Court of Appeals' Middle Division reversed a lower court's decision Thursday, finding that defendant Lisa Rung hadn't defamed Robert Weidlich and therefore doesn't owe $7,000 in damages.
Representing the defendant, the American Civil Liberties Union said Rung was upset over comments Weidlich made against LGBT people at a school board meeting. After the meeting, Rung noticed Weidlich's bumper stickers, including one promoting the League of the South, which the Southern Poverty Law Center lists as a neo-Confederate hate group.