The Nation - News from Nov. 26, 1986

U.S. District Judge Robert J. Ward dismissed a libel suit against conservative writer William F. Buckley Jr., ruling that it was within his freedom of speech to describe a right-wing publication as bigoted. Ward said the suit by Liberty Lobby Inc. and its founder, Willis A. Carto, was “entirely lacking in merit.” The conservative Washington-based Liberty Lobby publishes a weekly paper called the Spotlight. In a 1983 autobiography, “Overdrive: A Personal Documentary,” Buckley wrote: “The Spotlight’s distinctive feature is racial and religious bigotry.”