Roy Moore has won a defamation case against a Democratic PAC. For those who don't recall, Moore was the Republican candidate for Senate in Alabama in 2017. His campaign was harmed by an ad that claimed he hit on teenaged girls at the mall in 1979 and that his behavior resulted in being banned from the mall. Of course, Moore denied it. Nonetheless, he lost the race and Democrat Doug Jones was elected. Now, many years after the fact, Moore has been vindicated (sort of) and the Democratic PAC ordered to pay $8.2 million in damages. Obviously, this may be overturned on appeal, but it raises an interesting question: if the Democrats had been told in 2017 that it would cost them $8.2 million to win the race, would they agree to the price? Will this fine deter future defamation or encourage more?
Roy Moore is an odd bird and may have lost anyway. The teenager in question was 14 when he told her she was pretty but 16 (Alabama's age of consent) when he asked her for a date. For a guy in his 30s at the time, that's cradle-robbing. Then again, I wasn't raised in Alabama where this may be just fine. Let the folks of Alabama decide. On the other hand, Alabama hadn't elected a Democrat in 25 years prior to Doug Jones; Moore was running in a Republican state and replacing the new US Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
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