(LEX 18) — A federal judge has ruled that part of a Covington Catholic High School student's defamation lawsuit against the Washington Post can move forward, after initially dismissing the case.
Lawyers Todd V. McMurtry and Lin Wood hailed the move Monday on their Twitter accounts. McMurty said Nick Sandmann's claims against the newspaper "may now proceed into discovery. The ruling bodes will for the NBC and CNN cases, as well."
In January, video of Sandmann standing face-to-face with a Native American activist while surrounded by fellow Covington Catholic students on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., went viral on social media before being covered internationally.
Sandmann said he received death threats after the incident and blamed what he called unfair and biased coverage by several media outlets.
In July, however, a judge tossed his $250 million lawsuit against the Washington Post, saying the newspaper's article did not claim Sandmann had been racist or violent.
But after reviewing the case, a judge on Monday ordered that is could move forward. Sandmann's lawyers now can make requests for internal documents from the newspaper about the event -- including emails and communications between editors and reporters.
