• by Ray Schultz , March 25, 2025

Former casino mogul Steve Wynn was handed a defeat on Monday when the U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up his case seeking to challenge the court’s 1964 New York Times vs. Sullivan decision.

Wynn claimed SCOTUS should revisit its actual malice determination that was applied first to public servants in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan. This specifies that a public figure must prove a report was made with actual malice — that is, recklessly or knowing it was false — to prevail in a defamation case. 

SCOTUS declined to hear his appeal of a decision by the top court in Nevada.

No comment was issued by the High Court.   

The Sullivan decision has long been seen as protecting First Amendment freedoms, although conservatives have said they would like to see it weakened. 

Wynn, a billionaire Trump supporter, filed a defamation case against Associated Press after AP published an article in 2018 accusing him of committing a “rape” in the 1970s, a charge he denies.