Noah Feldman, Columnist

Jesse Ventura's First Amendment Lesson

The "American Sniper" case is a model for appeals courts that buckle to public pressure instead of defending free speech.

June 14, 2016 at 5:32 PM UTC

By Noah Feldman

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

Ventura in the ring.
Photographer: Craig Lassig/AFP/Getty Images

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Unless you followed professional wrestling in the 1980s, you might be tempted to confuse Hulk Hogan with Jesse “The Body” Ventura. To make matters even more confusing, both have been involved in high-profile defamation suits.

But while a Florida court’s $140 million verdict for Hogan against Gawker still stands, Ventura hasn’t fared so well in his lawsuit against the estate of Chris Kyle, the former SEAL who wrote the book “American Sniper” and was depicted in the movie of the same name. On Monday, a federal appeals court overturned the jury’s judgment in Ventura’s favor.