From today’s Ohio Court of Appeals opinion in Olthaus v. Niesen, written by Judge Pierre Bergeron and joined by Judges Candace Crouse and Marilyn Zayas (for more on the general legal issue, which has arisen as to allegations of Communism as well as racism, see this post):
Olthaus sued for defamation and related torts, but the court concluded that the defendants’ speech was opinion rather than a false statement of fact:
Defendants are represented by Erik W. Laursen (Laursen, Colliver & Mellott, LLC), Justin Whittaker (Whittaker Law, LLC), and J. Robert Linneman and H. Louis Sirkin (Santen & Hughes). One of the defendants had earlier been represented by Jennifer Kinsley, who was elected last year to sit on the Ohio First District Court of Appeals, which heard this case (though of course she wasn’t on this panel).
Note that this is the case in which I filed an amicus brief in a challenge to a prior restraint that an earlier judge in the case had entered, and also intervened to oppose the police officer’s proceeding pseudonymously and with an affidavit sealed. (Many thanks to Jeffrey M. Nye [Stagnaro, Saba & Patterson], who was pro bono local counsel on the amicus brief, and who represented me as to pseudonymity and sealing.)