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Judge Gets Millions Against Nasty Columnist

In a case that media lawyers say has broad implications for press freedoms, a jury in Geneva, Illinois found this week that a newspaper columnist falsely wrote in 2003 that the chief justice of the Illinois State Supreme Court had traded his vote for a political favor, and had acted with malice.

The chief justice, Robert R. Thomas, brought the case against Bill Page, a former columnist for The Kane County Chronicle, a 14,000-circulation daily here, about 40 miles west of Chicago.

The jury awarded Justice Thomas $US7 million, with $US5 million for damaging his reputation, $US1 million for future economic losses and $US1 million for humiliation. It is the second-largest award in the county’s history, after a $21 million medical malpractice award this year, according to circuit judge F. Keith Brown.

Details here from the New York Times.