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What do attorneys do when the economy slows down? Frivolous lawsuits!
More than four years after its publication, five disgruntled readers have filed a class-action lawsuit against President Jimmy Carter and his publisher, Simon & Schuster, alleging that his 2006 book “Palestine Peace Not Apartheid” contained “numerous false and knowingly misleading statements intended to promote the author’s agenda of anti-Israel propaganda and to deceive the reading public instead of presenting accurate information as advertised.”
The five plaintiffs named in the lawsuit are seeking at least $5 million in compensation. The hard cover edition cost $27.
The suit accuses Carter and his publisher of violating New York consumer protection laws because they engaged in “deceptive acts in the course of conducting business” and alleges that they sought enrichment by promoting the book “as a work of non-fiction.”
In a press release, one of the attorneys, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner stated: “The lawsuit will expose all the falsehoods and misrepresentations in Carter’s book and prove that his hatred of Israel has led him to commit this fraud on the public. He is entitled to his opinions but deceptions and lies have no place in works of history.”
Sounds kinda stupid? Well even the field office of the Israeli Chamber of Commerce seems to think so, but, it’s all in good fun, so why not?:
The plaintiffs don’t seem to have much of a legal case here. The spokesperson for Simon & Schuster told the Washington Post that the lawsuit would have “a chilling attack on free speech,” and he’s probably right. Carter’s anti-Israel tome may be a disgraceful distortion of reality, but if that was illegal, then there would be a lot of bankrupt authors.
The main point of the case seems to be to publicize how Carter’s anti-Semitic and anti-Israel views have shaped much of his misleading “advocacy” work in recent years. And that certainly will be fun to watch.
Presumably the presiding judge will return the filing with a big LOL! scrawled across it in red Sharpie, but on the off chance that a suit like this has merit, I call dibs:
I’m going to ask for a gazillion infinity dollars. Plus cab fare.
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This should be interesting…and short. Don’t pop too much popcorn for this feud.
If that legal precedent were ever actually set, FOX News would look like the carcass of a wildebeest eaten by piranhas after the lawyers were done with it.
Wouldn’t you have to buy a copy of Jonah’s book before you’d have standing to sue? Please tell me you didn’t buy one.
Great! I’m filing my lawsuit against W for “Decision Points,” because, well, who was really the decider?
I think we all know the answer.
The funny part is the “disgruntled”, like they were big fans who had no idea that Carter was an outspoken opponent of Likud Israel, and boy were they surprised at what they found!
That was my first thought as I read that. God would that be funny or what? Funny AND tragic. Well, more tragic.
Poor starved piranhas.
Let me rephrase that ;)
“After the lawyers were done with FOX News, it would resemble a wildebeest that had been eaten by piranhas.”
That is funny.
“I’d like to return this right-wing pro-Israel Neocon book please. It’s defective.”
Check out Little Danny Snyders’ huff and puff litigation threat against a Washington paper for true frivolous lawsuit hilarity.
Wow. Is this really the direction the right wants to go? If TBogg has already claimed Jonah’s book, I’d like to get $20,000 every time a wingnut says that evolution doesn’t exist. I’ll be set for life in a matter of weeks.
OMG!! i’ve lost count of all the crazy ass books out there that actually merit lawsuits (swiftboaters most notably; john dean reviewed their book and said kerry had a case)! it really would be fun to launch a class action suit against regeny press, for starters.
but, seriously speaking (really), i’m just waiting for george soros to sue glenn beck and fox. that, as the man said, would make my day.
And the building that houses the Regnery publishing company would probably collapse in upon itself and disappear like that house in Poltergeist.
Would it be enough to read the book from a library?
Well, I’m not a lawyer, but isn’t truth an absolute defense against libel? Also, too, Jonah Goldberg is still a big, fat idiot.
“Presumably the presiding judge will return the filing with a big LOL! scrawled across it in red Sharpie, but on the off chance that a suit like this has merit, I call dibs…”
See, I gotta call a halt to this. THIS is a Red Shar-pei. U do not use him to scrawl anything.
Arthur is a cool-looking dude. Instead of “using him to scrawl anything” I’d think you could just call Arthur an Author, and let him scrawl whatever he wants to, in whatever style he chooses, and then sit back and wait for some dimwit to sue him.
And I’m personally happy that Tbogg called dibs on Jonah’s waste of trees. I look forward to that match-up.
Oh, what fun this is.
Did anyone notice that the attorneys who filed this suit are from Alabama and Israel? You mean there’s not one pro-Israel wingnut attorney in the entire state of New York who could have filed this for them?
Also? Really bad idea to undercut your entire claim in the Introduction section: in Paragraph 5, plaintiffs say that they have no problem with Carter publishing falsehoods and expected no less from him because he’s well-known for his anti-Israel bias; in the very next paragraph, they allege that the promotion of this well-known Israel-hater’s book deceived them into … what, exactly?
hey TBogg, I wouldn’t buy the book under any other circs, but if you do decide to sue, I’ll rush right out and get it so I can be a co-plaintiff! (At the head of the class, I hope!)
Dibs on the Bible. Also, too.
Arthur says ‘enkew. He iz indeed pretty cool.
And the only things he writes are his budgets. Chinese, u noes.
I will let you have Pantload, but I have dibs on Horowitz!
Dayam, I wrote the bestest post of all, and it got eaten!
Well, y’all have said pretty much everything – it was just a variant.
I’m willing to bet Orly Taitz is involved in this.
Presumably the presiding judge will return the filing with a big LOL! scrawled across it
And then I hope Carter hires the most expensive lawyers he can find, and asks to have their fees paid by the plaintiffs.
I’ll see your Horowitz and raise you Don Rumsfeld. Beat that for mendacity!
Glenn Beck and Ann Coulter don’t count. Too hard to sue insane people.
Although, I must say, a law suit like this has never been made in such detail or with such care.
I have long thought one way to counter FOX would be to sue for false advertising (after all, it does hold itself out as “news” and not propaganda) and don’t even get me started on product liability with those twats.
And go ahead and call me gruntled, I want to mix it up.
~ Harry R. Sohl
File a brief asking for costs and sanctions against the lawyers and complaintants.
Since I r not a lawyer, I was wondering if something like this was possible. I mean, this is such utter bullshit in the garden of bullshittia, I want to sue them for having to read about it.
And, really? Crazy folks on the right want to start with the willful deceit lawsuits? Yeah, no. That’s not going to work out well for them.
GWPDA, awwww! I like the Red Shar-pei very much. He’s so handsome.
as the resident Woodrow Wilson specialist here I would claim the Pantload, but since Tbogg called dibs on the Doughster, I’ll call dibs on Beck.
Awkward….Carter brought about the 30 years of serenity with Egypt that Israel now laments may be ending, but Israel still has to denounce Carter as anti-Semitic because he spoke the forbidden truths.
This lawsuit was filed in Federal Court. Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 11 states people who file lawsuits without a reasonable basis, which is easier to prove than proving “frivolousness,” will be sanctioned in paying the other side’s (in this case Carter and Simon & Schuster) attorney’s fees and costs. The lawyers may also face State Bar discipline in the states they may be licensed in (the Israeli State Bar may also end up investigating the Israeli lawyer if Rule 11 sanctions are imposed). My understanding of common law in both federal and state courts in most states is that unfair business practices statutes and fraud common counts do not trump the First Amendment (see also the famous Supreme Court case involving Hustler Magazine and Jerry Falwell from the 1980s).
NY’s anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation, which is the phrase to describe how people use lawsuits to shut up people who speak out) law is unfortunately narrow, unlike California and other states which have an anti-SLAPP law. NY’s law only applies to those seeking permits, zoning changes, etc. CA’s law, which deals with public issues beyond the narrow confines of a permit or zoning ordinance, would have knocked out this lawsuit from the start with an automatic attorneys’ fees recovery for the defendants. I also find it outrageous for these plaintiffs to complain that they were misled into buying the book, but paragraph 5 or 6 talks about how Carter is well-known for being anti-Israel and biased against Israel. Funny that…
As a licensed lawyer, I can reasonably say that the two attorneys who filed this suit had better have warned their clients of what they are all risking in terms of Rule 11 sanctions….Rule 11 applies to litigants and their attorneys.
Substantively, Jimmy C is especially now owed an apology by those who ripped into him now that we know from the so-called “Palestine Papers” just how much the Palestinian negotiators were willing to give up to get to peace with Israel. It is pathetic that these plaintiffs would quibble over whether Resolution 242 requires every inch of territory or most of the territory be returned to Arab control as one of their lead arguments…
First of all, before they can even make their case in federal court they have to have standing. Standing requires that they suffer direct harm/damages. Let’s say that being the cheap SOBs they probably are, they actually plunked down a few shekels to buy Carter’s book. So they’re out the roughly $14.95 they paid for the book at Wal-Mart. Presumably, there were no product defects such as misprinted or missing pages. So they received precisely what they paid for: which was a book that contained Carter’s view of certain events. There is no implied warranty when one purchases a book that it is true; or even if it is supposed to be factual, that the buyer will agree with the writer’s rendition of the facts. Besides, if they felt that the book was that bad, they failed to mitigate their damages by attempting to return it within the period permitted for refunds or exchanges.
I hope Orly Taitz IS behind this. The courts can’t yank her license to practice law fast enough, as far as I’m concerned.