GENEVA, Ill., Nov. 14 — In a case that media lawyers say has broad implications for press freedoms, a jury here found Tuesday 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 $7 million, with $5 million for damaging his reputation, $1 million for future economic losses and $1 million for humiliation. It is the second-largest award in the county’s history, after a $21 million medical malpractice award this year, said F. Keith Brown, a circuit judge here.
Details here from the New York Times.