Hutchinson v. Proxmire

443 U.S. 111 (1979)

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Nature of the Case

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Facts

Proxmire (D) and his assistant decided to award Hutchinson (P) the 'Golden Fleece Award.' P sued D for defamation. Before the award was published and sent to 275 members of the news media worldwide, D's aid called P and P protested the award and the inaccurate and incomplete summary of his research. D also referred to his characterization of P's monkey research in a newsletter sent to 100,000 other people on a mailing list including constituents in Wisconsin. D referred to the research on news shows. P filed suit in federal court for the defamation and interference in contractual relationships with the agencies that had sponsored P's work. The Court of Appeals held that the Speech or Debate Clauses protected the statements made in the press release and the newsletter, but the follow-up calls and statements made on television and radio were not so protected. The Court of Appeals then determined that those follow up comments were protected by the First Amendment. P appealed.