The Supreme Court on Monday declined to consider reviving Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan’s defamation lawsuit against prominent Jewish organizations that called him antisemitic.
Lower courts threw out the suit against the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center (SWC), concluding that the allegations of antisemitism were protected opinion based on direct quotes by Farrakhan.
Some of Farrakhan’s remarks referenced by the ADL in 2023 compared Jews to “Satan” and suggested that “Jewish influence” resulted in institutional “pedophilia and sexual perversion” in Hollywood,” according to court filings. The group’s CEO, Jonathan Greenblatt, called him “one of the most notorious antisemites in the country.”
The SWC published a 2023 article condemning Farrakhan’s “anti-Semitic and anti-Judaic diatribes” at an annual Nation of Islam conference.
In his application to the justices, Farrakhan said that the terms “anti-Semite” and “antisemitic” have in modern times been used to exact “social, reputational, political, and economic punishment” on those falsely labeled as such, as he claims he was.
“In circumstances where they are applied legitimately, particularly because of threats of harm and physical violence against Jewish people and synagogues, it is acceptable,” he contended. “When, however, they are applied falsely and result in injury to the accused, it should be redressable.”
He accused the ADL specifically of seeking to “abridge, if not utterly destroy,” his ability to exercise his First Amendment rights.
, 2025-10-06 13:57:00, 
, TheHill.com Just In, %%https://thehill.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/03/cropped-favicon-512px-1.png?w=32, https://thehill.com/homenews/feed/, Ella Lee
