Supreme Court to hear lawmaker’s defamation case

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The Arizona Supreme Court will hear the defamation case that stems from Arizona State Sen. Wendy Rogers’ attack ads during her failed 2018 Congressional run.  

Rogers’ opponent’s former employer Pamela Young said that the ads defamed her and her company by implying she “had committed or supported the commission of sex crimes.”  

The key question, Young’s attorneys wrote in their petition to the court, is, “Can a political candidate be liable for defaming a third party while attacking a political opponent?” They say there hasn’t been another Arizona case that discusses this issue. 

The attorneys for Rogers argued that the continued litigation will chill political speech and keep politicians from bringing up their opponents’ employers.  

“The First Amendment’s protection for political speech is irreconcilable with a rule that friends, employers, and acquaintances of a political candidate can force a jury trial simply by stating a theoretically possible defamatory implication,” they wrote in their petition to deny review. “The chilling effect of adopting Plaintiffs’ rule would be catastrophic.” 

The state’s high court has not yet set a date for oral arguments. Supplemental briefs from the parties are due May 24.  

In one of Rogers’ 2018 radio ads, the narrator says Rogers’ opponent, former state Sen. Steve Smith, “is a slimy character whose modeling agency specializes in underage girls and advertises on websites linked to sex trafficking.”  

Rogers campaign’s website, www.slimysteve.com, also stated that Smith “personally advertises on the website, Model Mayhem, a website full of pornographic material, which has also been involved in human trafficking, according to ABC News, and has been reported as having a ‘dangerous history.’”  

Young, owner of the Young Agency, sued Rogers for defamation and false light invasion of privacy. The Young Agency is a modeling agency that represents models and actors, about half of whom are children. 

The Court of Appeals overturned the lower court in a split decision in December, entering summary judgement for Rogers.  

Now the state’s high court will decide. 

Justice Bill Montgomery did not participate in selecting the case — when he was Maricopa County Attorney, he defended Smith during the 2018 campaign. 

Rogers’ attorneys previously filed a motion for Montgomery to recuse himself, but the high court previously deemed the issue moot, as Montgomery has already recused.