Andrew Shirvell
The U.S. Court of Appeals delivered a mixed decision in the appeal by Andrew Shrivell, the former state assistant attorney general who was fired after waging an anti-gay campaign against a University of Michigan college student Chris Armstrong.
You might recall in August 2012, Shrivell lost in court in a civil suit and a jury ordered him to pay Armstrong $4.5 million for defamation and emotional stress. Armstrong was an openly gay former student government president at U of M.
Robert Snell of the Detroit News reports that the federal appeals panel Monday slashed the $4.5 million judgment by $1 million but denied the overall appeal in the case.
Snell writes:
Shirvell, a UM alumnus, had created the Chris Armstrong Watch blog, calling him "a radical homosexual activist, racist, elitist and liar." He had cast the blog as speech protected by the First Amendment.
