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Baron Cohen Lawyers on Winning Ruling In Judge Moore's Defamation Suit

By Ross Todd
August 01, 2021

Comedic actor Sacha Baron Cohen made former Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore the butt of a joke, playing off media reports that plagued Judge Moore during his campaign for the U.S. Senate, about allegations of sexual misconduct involving young women. During the segment from the satirical Showtime series Who is America? segment at the center of a defamation suit from Judge Moore and his wife, Baron Cohen, posing as an Israeli anti-terrorism expert, claimed to have a device that identified pedophiles — and that device went off when he waived it in front of Moore.

Federal District Judge John Cronan of the Southern District of New York recently ruled that a release Judge Moore signed prior to his appearance on the program barred precisely the sorts of claims he was bringing. Southern District Judge Cronan further found the First Amendment applied to claims brought by Moore's wife Kayla, who was not party to the release, on the ground that the bit "was clearly a joke and no reasonable viewer would have seen it otherwise" and that it "was commentary on matters of public concern." Moore v. Cohen, 19 Civ. 4977.

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