OMAHA — An attempt Friday by an attorney for the Nebraska Freedom Coalition to sidestep State Sen. Megan Hunt’s defamation lawsuit is being taken under advisement for at least the weekend by a Douglas County District Court judge.
District Judge Todd Engleman will decide on the motion to dismiss. He is hearing the civil case that hinges on whether the sometimes aggressive populist conservative group’s online statements went too far when someone operating their social media accounts accused Hunt of “grooming children, including her own.”
Hunt’s attorney, Adam Morfeld, argued in court and in a legal brief that Freedom Coalition statements about Hunt were not only untrue but could be generally understood by the public as accusing her of criminal behavior, inclination or both. Morfeld’s Nebraska Legal Action Fund group is helping her sue.
“They’re trying to argue that they did not accuse (Hunt) of a specific crime, but in defamation case law you don’t need to accuse them of a specific crime,” Morfeld said. “You simply need to accuse them of something that would be a crime.”
Fight over trans health care
Hunt is a politically progressive senator from Omaha who, along with State Sen. Machaela Cavanaugh of Omaha, filibustered much of the 2023 legislative session to delay the passage of legislation that targeted health care for trans youth.
During the debate on Legislative Bill 574, which the Freedom Coalition supported, she explained how the bill might harm her son, who is trans. Hunt has blamed some of the online statements for an increase in threats she said she and her family faced.
Freedom Coalition attorney Robert Sullivan argued in court and in his motion that the group called Hunt a “groomer,” but did not expressly say that her actions were criminal, nor did they accuse her of wanting to sexually abuse a child.
Sullivan argued that Hunt’s lawsuit “adds language to the things the defendant did publish.” The law, he argued, sets the bar higher for libel or slander against a public official. He said the group was making a general statement, not an accusation.
“There is a statement,” Sullivan said. “Now there are pleadings and additional information being provided that add words to it. That’s certainly one person’s interpretation of maybe what the people meant … but that’s not what you have in front of you.”
At one point in the hearing, Morfeld argued that the Freedom Coalition or its members had provided their own definition of a groomer online. Morfeld said it lined up with how state law defines the term.
Sullivan said the Freedom Coalition only offered the word’s definition, not a legal definition or an accusation. Hunt attended the hearing with her lawyers. Sullivan appeared on behalf of the Freedom Coalition members.
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