The Irish Rover Wins a Lawfare Battle

The Irish Rover, a Catholic newspaper on the Notre Dame campus won a battle in a defamation lawsuit brought by a Notre Dame professor against the newspaper.

The defamation lawsuit brought against the Irish Rover by Prof. Tamara Kay in June 2023 was dismissed by St. Joseph County, Indiana, Superior Court on Jan 8, 2024, under Indiana’s Anti-SLAPP law.

The Irish Rover is an alternative newspaper for Notre Dame students and is available to alums and those who support Catholic values.

Upholding the Catholic character of the University of Notre Dame

The Irish Rover has 12 faculty advisors to include two priests. They write articles that feature what is faithful on the Notre Dame campus and what does not represent Catholic values on campus. There will always be battles in the war on Catholic values both off and on campus.

The Irish Rover Mission Statement

Established in 2003, the Irish Rover remains an independent, non-profit, student publication devoted to preserving the Catholic identity of Notre Dame. As expressed in the Rover’s constitution, three objectives guide our editorial policy:

1. Defend the Faith and honorable traditions of this great university;

2. Articulate conservative principles;

3. Engage in collegial debate.

The Rover seeks to facilitate one dimension of what the university desires for its community, as expressed in Notre Dame’s mission statement:

“a forum where, through free inquiry and open discussion, the various lines of Catholic thought may intersect with all the forms of knowledge found in the arts, sciences, professions, and every other area of human scholarship and creativity.”

To provide this forum, the Rover offers a distinctive kind of coverage that includes campus news, religion, politics, culture, and humor.

"The defamation lawsuit brought against the Irish Rover by Prof. Tamara Kay in June 2023 was dismissed by St. Joseph County, Indiana, Superior Court on Jan 8, 2024, under Indiana’s Anti-SLAPP law."

The Jan. 8 Court Order, filed in the St. Joseph Circuit and Superior Courts, however, concluded that “the allegedly defamatory statements were made in the furtherance of the defendant’s right to free speech, were made in connection with a public issue, were made with good faith and with a reasonable basis in law and fact.”

The court ruling affirmed that Kay “cannot voluntarily put herself into the national abortion issue either on the campus of Notre Dame or in a broader, national forum, by making multiple strong statements in favor of abortion rights and access to abortion and expect that it will not become newsworthy at Notre Dame and elsewhere.”

Click on the link from the Bopp Law Firm that represented the Irish Rover.

One battle won and it will not be last battle in the cancel culture wars but there is some comfort in knowing that there are students on a campus that are willing to fight.