Two potentially pivotal free speech cases — one a libel action involving celebrity Melba Moore and the other a review of New York City’s zoning law for adult establishments — highlight a three-day Court of Appeals session beginning tomorrow.
The Court has an opportunity, through the libel and zoning cases, to re-examine, in a standard of proof context, two of its most press-revered rulings on free speech matters, Chapadeau v. Utica Observer-Dispatch, 38 NY2d 196, and Arcara v. Cloud Books Inc., 68 NY2d 553, both written by former Chief Judge Sol Wachtler.
