By: (AP) The Arizona Supreme Court said Wednesday it will decide whether a newspaper can be sued for publishing a letter suggesting that American soldiers in Iraq respond to attacks by killing Muslims at nearby mosques.
The Supreme Court agreed without comment to hear the Tucson Citizen's appeal of a judge's decision to hold a trial in a lawsuit accusing the newspaper of distressing residents by printing the letter.
The Supreme Court ordered legal briefs filed within 30 days. No date was set for oral arguments.
Two Tucson men filed a class-action lawsuit against the Gannett Co. newspaper in January 2004 over a letter printed Dec. 2, 2003, as deadly attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq mounted.
The letter prompted some fearful Tucson Muslims to keep their children home from religious schools and resulted in protests from readers and a published apology by the Citizen, which also sent staff members to meet with members of a local mosque.
The lawsuit argued that the newspaper's decision to publish the letter was not constitutionally protected because it was a direct call to violence that could extend to Islamic-Americans.
Superior Court Judge Leslie Miller ruled May 10 that the lawsuit's claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress should stand.
The Citizen argued on appeal that the case put at risk the fundamental First Amendment right to engage in robust political debate.
"If the trial court's ruling is allowed to stand, political speech that falls well short of advocating immediate violence may be subject to sanction in Arizona - making this state a uniquely risky jurisdiction in which to publish news and commentary," the Citizen's appeal said.
Without any immediate physical threat to anyone, publication of the letter is constitutionally protected, the newspaper argued.
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