Supreme Court Rejects Hatfill Appeal in Anthrax Libel Suit
Former Army scientist Steven Hatfill has failed to win U.S. Supreme Court review of a ruling tossing his libel suit against the New York Times for its columns falsely linking him to the 2001 anthrax attacks.
The Times columns by Nicholas Kristof had called Hatfill the “likely culprit,” Bloomberg reports. The Richmond, Va.-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had found Hatfill was a public figure and said he failed to prove that the columns were the result of actual malice, the Associated Press reports.
The appeals court said Hatfill qualified as a public figure because he had sought the limelight as a bioterrorism expert. He won a $5.8 million settlement with the Department of Justice in June for identifying him as a person of interest in the attacks.
