© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Republican U.S. Senate candidate Don Blankenship speaks to his supporters during the primary election in Charleston, West Virginia, U.S., May 8, 2018. REUTERS/Lexi Browning/File Photo
By Andrew Chung
(Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to hear a bid by a prominent former West Virginia mining company executive to make it easier for public figures to sue for defamation in a case that challenged longstanding and powerful protections for news organizations.
The justices turned away former Massey Energy CEO Donald Blankenship’s appeal of a lower court’s decision throwing out his defamation lawsuit against media outlets including Fox News and MSNBC for characterizing him as a “felon” during his unsuccessful 2018 run for the U.S. Senate.
Blankenship was convicted by a jury in 2015 of a federal conspiracy offense that is classified as a misdemeanor, not a felony, after a 2010 mine explosion that killed 29 coal miners.
