Meghan Markle‘s lawyers requested a Florida judge on Wednesday to dismiss Samantha Markle‘s defamation case. They claimed that her rights to “criticize” or “express opinions” are “fundamental rights granted by the First Amendment.”
The case was brought because of comments made by the royal in a tv interview with Oprah Winfrey and information given to the writers of the biography Finding Freedom.
The free-speech argument has been made despite Meghan’s husband, Prince Harry, recently being criticized for calling the First Amendment “bonkers.”
During an appearance on The Armchair Expert podcast in May 2021, Harry said that, per his understanding, the amendment meant that “you can find a loophole in anything.” He added: “You can capitalize or exploit what’s not said rather than uphold what is said.”
Whilst the prince did not clarify what motivated his opposition to the change, he did mention his privacy concerns and the media in the podcast. He said that the paparazzi followed his son on his first day of school in California.
Conservatives criticized the prince for his political remarks and apparent criticism of American freedom. “We fought a war in 1776, so we don’t have to care what you say or think,” Meghan McCain said on Twitter.
“That being said, you have chosen to seek refuge from your homeland here and thrive because of all of what our country has to offer and one of the biggest things is the 1st amendment—show some utter respect,” the tweet read.
Samantha is suing Meghan for $75,000 for comments she made to Oprah in 2021. Meghan stated that she was raised as an “only child,” that Samantha changed her name back to Markle only after Meghan and Harry’s relationship became public, and that she had not seen Samantha in over two decades.
Meghan’s half-sister is also suing for defamation after she provided material to a staff member who briefed the authors of the 2020 book Finding Freedom. Samantha had “lost custody of all three of her children from different fathers,” according to information sent to royal communications officer Jason Knauf and released in a media lawsuit in 2021.