Student newspaper wins final victory in Indiana Supreme Court

The years-long lawsuit Tamara Kay v. The Irish Rover concluded on June 18 when the Indiana Supreme Court denied Kay’s petition to transfer a decision made by the state Court of Appeals, which affirmed the St. Joseph Superior Court’s original dismissal of Kay’s claims of defamation.

The Rover reported twice on Kay’s pro-abortion activism. In October of 2022, the Rover wrote that Kay offered “abortion access to students,” citing multiple X (then Twitter) posts offering “help” with “issues w access or cost” and a sign on her office door advertising “help” for “ALL Healthcare issues and access.” The sign also displayed a large capital “J”—a symbol denoting Notre Dame professors willing to help students get access to abortions.

In a second article, published in March of 2023, the Rover reported on an address Kay delivered to College Democrats at a “Women @ ND” event, where she spoke about “her career and her research and how they’ve informed her activism around abortion rights post-Dobbs.”

Kay filed a lawsuit against the Rover in 2023, claiming defamation for the two articles. The Rover filed to dismiss the case according to Anti-SLAPP laws in Indiana.

The St. Joseph County, Indiana, Superior Court granted this dismissal in January of 2024, defending the Rover’s reporting as “true” and “not made with actual malice.” Kay was ordered to pay the newspaper’s attorney fees following the dismissal.

Kay then appealed the decision to the Indiana Court of Appeals, which unanimously affirmed the decision in February of 2025. The appellate decision stated: “The trial court properly dismissed Dr. Kay’s complaint under Indiana’s Anti-SLAPP statute. Here, we agree with the trial court that the undisputed facts established that The Irish Rover’s two articles were written in good faith and that the alleged defamatory statements were not false.”

Following this decision, Kay made a petition to transfer the case to the state Supreme Court. In a brief statement signed by Chief Justice of Indiana Loretta H. Rush, the court noted it had reviewed “all briefs filed in the Court of Appeals” and all materials “filed in connection with the request to transfer jurisdiction.” The Court ruled in a 4-1 decision to deny the petition to transfer.

With the final and definitive dismissal of this baseless case, the journalistic integrity of the Irish Rover, as well as the honorable mission of the paper, is upheld.

The editorial staff of the Irish Rover would like to extend their thanks to Jim Bopp, his legal team, and all who helped tirelessly to defend the paper’s journalistic standing.

In Notre Dame,

The Editorial Staff of the Irish Rover

 

Photo Credit: Matthew Rice via Wikimedia commons

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