Supreme Court of the United States · Official docket →
Donald J. Trump v. Cable News Network, Inc.
Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, No. 23-14044 · judgment November 18, 2025
(petition-stage, structural)
Roughly the 4.1% base rate. The model weights this up for counsel with five or more prior petitions here, a circuit split argued in the petition, and an Eleventh Circuit decision below, and down for a petition of 3,000 to 6,000 words and a business respondent.
Question presented
In Milkovich v. Lorain Journal Co., 497 U.S. 1 (1990), this Court held that a false statement framed as an opinion remains actionable as defamation if a reasonable reader could understand the statement to convey provably false facts. The Eleventh Circuit departed from that rule—and from the First, Second, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits—by treating false factual accusations as protected when conveyed through a pejorative label and inflammatory imagery. Here, CNN made false factual accusations about President Donald J. Trump’s challenges to the 2020 election process, and embedded them in pernicious comparisons to Hitler’s and Goebbels’s use of the “Big Lie” in antisemitic Nazi propaganda. The question presented is: Whether the First Amendment protects a publisher from defamation liability when it conveys provably false factual accusations through a pejorative label and accompanying inflammatory imagery.
Counsel of record
For petitioner
Richard C. Klugh Jr.
For respondent
Theodore J. Boutrous Jr.
Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP
Case
Subject area
First Amendment (estimated from the questions presented, in the Supreme Court Database’s categories)
Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference
Linked docket
25A1357
Proceedings
- Oct 13 2026Motion to extend the time to file a response is granted and the time is extended to and including November 25, 2026.
- Oct 09 2026Motion to extend the time to file a response from October 30, 2026 to November 25, 2026, submitted to The Clerk.
- Sep 30 2026Response Requested. (Due October 30, 2026)
- Sep 23 2026DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 10/9/2026.
- Sep 14 2026Waiver of right of respondent Cable News Network, Inc. to respond filed.
- Aug 14 2026Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due September 21, 2026)
- Jul 10 2026Application (25A1357) granted by Justice Thomas extending the time to file until August 14, 2026.
- Jul 01 2026Application (25A1357) to extend further the time from July 15, 2026 to August 14, 2026, submitted to Justice Thomas.
- Jun 05 2026Application (25A1357) granted by Justice Thomas extending the time to file until July 15, 2026.
- Jun 03 2026Application (25A1357) to extend the time to file a petition for a writ of certiorari from June 15, 2026 to August 14, 2026, submitted to Justice Thomas.