Verdict: Michigan AG (R) must pay $4.5 million to gay student body prez he lied about.

[No Elephants]

August 16, 2012 9:11 PM

Lawyer ordered to pay $4.5M to gay U-M student(AP) DETROIT - A jury on Thursday awarded a gay University of Michigan student body president $4.5 million in his lawsuit against a former Michigan assistant attorney general who posted about him in an anti-gay blog.

The U.S. District Court jury ruled in favor of Christopher Armstrong, who claimed he suffered distress after a blog created by Andrew Shirvell accused him of enticing minors with alcohol and recruiting people to become homosexual.

"I'm just incredibly humbled by what happened today," Armstrong told The Associated Press. "This is truly a victory — not just for myself, but for a lot of other kids out there."

Shirvell, who was representing himself, said the jury award was "grossly excessive" for what was "clearly protected speech ... and activity."

People who don't know diddly about First Amendment law should neither represent themselves or have a job as a state AG.

Deliberate lies about private persons were never protected speech and a student body president is not "a public figure." An Assistant AG might well be a public figure, but a student body president does not become a private figure because some Republican homophobe loon tells lies about the kid.

Armstrong's attorney offered to drop the lawsuit if Shirvell issued a retraction and Shirvell refused.



"Shirvell said he's unemployed and "there's no way I could possibly ever pay such a judgment."




He got fired over this.

Armstrong has twenty years to collect. I'm sure someone who believes in personal responsiblity, as all Republicans claim to do, will find a job soon.

They say that lawyers who represent themselves have a fool for a client. Well, this fool of a client had had a fool for a lawyer, too.

[Betty]

1. they should garnish his wages

for the rest of his miserable life. And why was this guy so obsessed with this young man?

[No Elephants]

2. Claims he wanted him to resign as student body prez, but who knows?