Jewish Democrats Targeted By Adelson Can Sue, Court Rules

Image by getty images
WASHINGTON (JTA) — A federal appeals court has ruled that Jewish Democrats may countersue casino magnate Sheldon Adelson now that lower courts have dismissed his libel lawsuit against them.
Adelson had sued the National Jewish Democratic Council in 2012 over an online petition alleging the Republican donor allowed prostitution at his casino in Macau. The petition included a hyperlink to an article in the Associated Press carrying allegations against Adelson; much of the legal argument since then was over whether attaching a hyperlink is a clear enough signal that the defendants were citing available information.
On Wednesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second District, based in New York, said Adelson failed to show that his targets knew their claim against him was false. The ruling affirmed a decision by a lower court to dismiss Adelson’s lawsuit.
The linked Associated Press article reported on a lawsuit by a former employee of Adelson. It alleged that the employee was terminated for, among other reasons, refusing to allow prostitutes to ply their trade at the casino. Adelson has since reportedly settled with the former employee, Steve Jacobs, with a $75 million payout.
The latest ruling allows the NJDC to countersue under Nevada’s famously tough statue meant to discourage attempts to prevent frivolous libel lawsuits. Such anti-SLAPP statutes (short for strategic lawsuit against public participation), which vary state by state, allow targets of lawsuits to countersue should a court dismiss a libel lawsuit.
The targets of Adelson’s original lawsuit, the NJDC and its former chairman, Marc Stanley, and president, David Harris, have not yet decided whether to exercise their right to countersue, Stanley said in an email to JTA.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 4
Opinion What Jewish university presidents say: Trump is exploiting campus antisemitism, not fighting it
In Case You Missed It
-
Culture In Pope Francis, a voice for interfaith dialogue and against antisemitism
-
Fast Forward Israeli army fires deputy commander after finding ‘operational errors’ in killing of 15 Gazans
-
News Pope Francis, who advanced church’s relationships with Jews, dies at 88
-
Fast Forward ‘F–k Israel’ message displayed at Coachella music festival and streamed to millions
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.