What’s the status of the Covington Catholic student’s 8 lawsuits against media outlets?

Nick Sandmann has held a scorecard of lawsuits against national media outlets for defamatory statements following an incident which took place at the Lincoln Memorial in January 2019.

Sandmann, who was a 16-year old student at Covington Catholic in Northern Kentucky at the time of the incident, was the center of videos that went viral showing him and Nathan Phillips, a Native American man, standing face to face as Phillips beat a drum and sang a traditional song while Sandmann smiled.

Since the incident in Washington D.C. that put a national spotlight on racism, Sandmann sued a total of eight media outlets for defamatory statements. What is the status of those cases? Five of the cases were dismissed by a judge, and three of the cases were settled in court.

On July 26, 2022, five of the libel suits against The New York Times, CBS, ABC, Gannett Co. Inc. and Rolling Stone were thrown out by United States Eastern Kentucky District Court Judge William Bertselman. This lawsuit centered around stories which recapped the events outside of the national monument with Phillips.

Sandmann’s attorney, Todd McMurtry, told the Herald-Leader they were disappointed about the ruling, and intended to file an appeal.

Lin Wood, Sandmann’s former attorney, , said he was also disappointed to hear about the ruling by Judge Bertelsman.

Nick Sandmann’s lawsuits: Cases settled

Sandmann’s three other cases with national media outlets The Washington Post, CNN and NBC were settled. No terms for any of the settlements have been disclosed.

A settlement was agreed upon with The Washington Post, which Sandmann claimed defamed him by publishing seven articles and three tweets containing a total of thirty-three allegedly libelous statements, according to court documents.

The case was dismissed with prejudice in July 2019, also presided over by Bertselman, according to court documents. In 2020, CNN reported the judge reinstated the case in October, and significantly narrowed the scope. Following this, both parties agreed to a settlement which was not disclosed by Sandmann’s attorneys or a spokesperson from The Washington Post, according to a report from CNN.

“The Court accepts Sandmann’s statement that, when he was standing motionless in the confrontation with Phillips, his intent was to calm the situation and not impede or block anyone,” Bertelsman wrote in his opinion on the case. “However, Phillips did not see it that way. He concluded that he was being ‘blocked’ and not allowed to ‘retreat.’ He passed these conclusions on to The Post. They may have been erroneous, but ... they are opinion protected by the First Amendment. And The Post is not liable for publishing these opinions.”

The Post admitted no wrong-doing in taking the settlement.

“From our first story on this incident to our last, we sought to report fairly and accurately the facts that could be established from available evidence, the perspectives of all of the participants, and the comments of the responsible church and school officials,” Shani George, The Washington Post’s director of communications, said in the newspaper’s coverage of the lawsuit’s dismissal. “We are pleased that the case has been dismissed.”

According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, Sandmann announced his settlement with NBC in a tweet in December 2021. The terms of the settlement were not disclosed by either party.

Sandmann had filed a lawsuit against media outlet CNN under similar circumstances for $275 million, according to CNN Business.

They said this would allow them to bypass a “lengthy and unpredictable trial. This was also announced by Sandmann on his personal Twitter page in a post that read, “Yes, we have settled with CNN.”