4/10 – The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld the dismissal of a defamation lawsuit brought by Caleb McGillvary—the “hatchet-wielding hitchhiker”—against Rolling Stone. McGillvary sued over a 2023 Rolling Stone article about a documentary on his life, claiming it included four defamatory statements about his behavior and past. A federal district court dismissed the case in 2025, finding the statements were either opinion or substantially true. The Second Circuit agreed, and held that McGillvary also failed to demonstrate that Rolling Stone published the statements with actual malice. Previously, the firm defended producers who were sued by McGillvary in California in a case that was dismissed by the district court and affirmed on appeal by the Ninth Circuit.