A judge has ordered a former Notre Dame professor to pay a student newspaper’s legal costs to defend against her frivolous defamation lawsuit.
Special Judge Steven David has recently ruled that Tamara Kay must pay $200,000 to The Irish Rover, the university’s conservative student newspaper, to cover their attorney fees.
Kay sued the paper for defamation in 2023 after it published two articles about her. Each accurately reported on her pro-abortion access public statements and actions following the U.S. Supreme Court’s overturning of Roe v. Wade, and the subsequent passage of Indiana’s abortion law.
The Rover hired Terre Haute-based First Amendment attorney James Bopp Jr.
Within a year David had dismissed the case as frivolous, meaning it lacks any rational or arguable basis in fact or law, and the Indiana Supreme Court denied to hear Kay’s appeal. The sides then spent another two and a half years arguing whether Kay should have to pay.
Indiana has an “Anti-SLAPP” law – SLAPP standing for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. It protects someone exercising their right of free speech against a frivolous suit by dismissing the case, and requires the plaintiff to pay the defendant’s attorney fees.
