The Louisiana Supreme Court has revived a defamation lawsuit filed by the former director of Loyola University's School of Communication and Design against the university and the school’s newspaper, The Maroon.
The state's highest court sided with Sonya Duhé in a split 4-3 vote on Dec. 19, reversing a state appeals court that had thrown out her case, which attacked the Maroon’s coverage of allegations of racism from several of her current and former students.
The appeals court found that the university and others named in the suit were protected by the First Amendment. The Supreme Court majority, however, agreed with 24th Judicial District Judge Nancy Miller that the case should move forward.
Duhé, a former journalist and news anchor, claimed the Maroon's coverage was misleading, and in May 2021 she sued the university, former President Tania Tetlow, The Maroon and its staff adviser, Michael Giusti.
The controversy erupted in June 2020, as protests rippled across the country following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
After Duhé posted on Twitter about "Black Out Tuesday," a social media campaign to raise awareness of violence against people of color, a former student publicly responded by calling her a racist. Other former students followed, alleging Duhé had made racist comments when she was a professor there. About a dozen current or former students told The Maroon that Duhé had a history of making racist and insensitive remarks.
A series of articles, editorials and letters The Maroon and Tetlow published beginning in June 2020 amounted to defamation, Duhé's lawsuit claims, because they "specifically stated or implied that Duhé is a racist, a bigot, prejudiced and a homophobe."
At the time, Duhé had recently accepted a prestigious new job as dean of the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University, an offer that was rescinded within days of the accusations against her. Loyola refused to let Duhé — who by then had submitted her resignation — return to her former job.
The Maroon published one story about Duhé being under investigation by Arizona State. Some Loyola students made similar complaints to Arizona State's student paper. Duhé has sued ASU as well.
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeal ruled that Duhé never contested the truthfulness of the statements made in the reporting, but rather claimed that it was misleading and did not paint a complete picture. In throwing out the case, the court found no clear evidence of defamation and said the allegedly offending statements were “in furtherance of their constitutional rights of free speech in connection with a public issue.”
A majority of Supreme Court justices — Scott Crichton, William Crain, Jefferson Hughes and Jay McCallum — disagreed. Dissenting from the majority on Tuesday were Chief Justice John Weimer and Justices James Genovese and Piper Griffin.
“We’re looking forward to now having our day in court and allowing her to defend her name,” said Jeremiah Sprague, one of Duhé’s attorneys. Sprague said Duhé remains unemployed thanks to the controversy.
“It’s destroyed her life,” he said “A woman who has a Ph.D., who is tapped to go to one of the highest, most prestigious positions in the country in broadcast journalism, is now completely unemployable based upon accusations made on social media. She was accused and convicted and condemned.”
A spokesperson for Loyola did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
