Supreme Court Won’t Hear Journalist Chuck Johnson’s Libel Appeal Against Huffington Post

Arianna Huffington, president and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group, poses at a Huffington Post office in a file photograph. Dominique Faget/AFP/Getty Images

The Supreme Court declined on Dec. 5 to hear the appeal of the controversial and formerly high-profile journalist Chuck Johnson, who sued the Huffington Post website over characterizing him as a white nationalist in a 2019 article.

Some online businesses had watched the case carefully, fearing that if the Supreme Court had agreed to take the case and ultimately ruled against the Huffington Post on the merits, suing online publishers and media outlets for libel or other civil wrongs could have been made easier.