U.S. Appeals Court rules for James O’Keefe in First Amendment case

A U.S. appeals court has ruled in favor of James O’Keefe, founder of Project Veritas, and a Project Veritas reporter, overturning a previous judgment regarding an undercover operation targeting Democratic strategists.

A split panel of judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit determined that a district court judge erroneously upheld $130,000 in damages. Circuit Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, writing for the majority, stated that the jury’s damages award violated the First Amendment by punishing the defendants for publishing a news story.

The legal dispute originated from a Project Veritas video featuring conversations with strategist Robert Creamer and other Democratic operatives. While some footage was recorded by a reporter during an internship at Democracy Partners, the court found that the primary cause of Creamer’s lost contracts was protected footage recorded by other personnel in public places. The court concluded that because the protected content was the principal cause of the damages, the award impinged on First Amendment rights.