Today, the New York Court of Appeals dismissed the case brought by American writer Rachel Erhrenfeld against Saudi businessman Khalid Bin Mahfouz. Ehrenfeld had sought to have the decision of a British court that she had libeled Bin Mahfouz overturned because of its potentially chilling effect on her First Amendment Freedom of Speech. The court ruled that it had no jurisdiction to hear the case and dismissed it. The court said that the issues of First Amendment freedoms could not be approached because New York law, under which Ehrenfeld brought her case, do not permit the Court to take up the case in the first instance.

Read earlier Crossroads Arabia coverage of the issue.

You can find an Associate Press story State law won’t protect terror author from libel judgment.

The New York Sun reports hyperbolically here.

HT: Howard Bashman at the How Appealing law blog.