Wilson v. Superior Court

Opinion

MOSK, J.

In Gertz v. Robert Welch, Inc. (1974) 418 U.S. 323, 325 [41 L.Ed.2d 789, 797, 94 S.Ct. 2997], Justice Powell began by observing that “This Court has struggled for nearly a decade to define the proper accommodation between the law of defamation and the freedoms of speech and press protected by the First Amendment.” Growing public awareness of the need for integrity in the election process has added to the judicial task: in this case we are called upon to determine whether a court may constitutionally enjoin the publication of allegedly misleading and libelous statements made by…