Greenbelt Cooperative Publishing Ass'n, Inc. v. Bresler

Greenbelt Cooperative Publishing Assn., Inc. v. Bresler
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued February 24–25, 1970 Decided May 18, 1970
Full case name	Greenbelt Cooperative Publishing Association, Inc., et al., Petitioners v. Charles S. Bresler
Citations	398 U.S. 6 (more) 90 S. Ct. 1537; 26 L. Ed. 2d 6; 1970 U.S. LEXIS 42; 1 Media L. Rep. 1589
Case history
Prior	253 Md. 324, 252 A.2d 755 (1969); cert. granted, 396 U.S. 874 (1969).
Holding
Held that using the word "blackmail" in a newspaper article about a public figure "was no more than rhetorical hyperbole" and that finding such usage as libel "would subvert the most fundamental meaning of a free press".
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices Hugo Black · William O. Douglas John M. Harlan II · William J. Brennan Jr. Potter Stewart · Byron White Thurgood Marshall
Case opinions
Majority	Stewart, joined by Burger, Harlan, Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun
Concurrence	White
Concurrence	Black, joined by Douglas
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. I

Greenbelt Cooperative Publishing Association, Inc. v. Bresler, 398 U.S. 6 (1970), is a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that using the word "blackmail" in a newspaper article "was no more than rhetorical hyperbole" and that finding such usage as libel "would subvert the most fundamental meaning of a free press" guaranteed by the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.^[1] The ruling also touched on the plaintiff's status as a public figure.