RebeccaDunnLevert / stock.adobe.com
The Irish Rover, a student-run Catholic newspaper at the University of Notre Dame, has won a major legal victory after the Indiana Supreme Court declined to hear a defamation case brought by Professor Tamara Kay.
The court’s June 18 decision ends a multi-year legal effort by Kay to challenge the paper’s reporting on her pro-abortion activism — leaving intact lower court rulings that found the Rover’s coverage was accurate and protected under Indiana law, the Irish Rover reported.
Kay sued the newspaper in 2023 over two articles she claimed were defamatory. The first, published in the fall of 2022, cited public posts from Kay’s X account offering students help with abortion access and cost.
The article also mentioned a sign on her office door advertising support for “ALL Healthcare issues and access,” featuring a large letter “J” — a signal at Notre Dame indicating professors willing to help students obtain abortions.
A second piece, published in spring 2023, reported on a campus talk where Kay spoke about how her research and professional background had shaped her advocacy for legal abortion following the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision.
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Citing Indiana’s Anti-SLAPP law, which protects defendants from lawsuits meant to stifle free speech on matters of public concern, the Irish Rover moved to dismiss the case. In January 2024, a judge in St. Joseph County ruled in the paper’s favor, determining that the articles were fact-based and written without actual malice. The court also ordered Kay to pay the paper’s legal fees.
Kay appealed, but the Indiana Court of Appeals unanimously upheld the dismissal in February 2025.
“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,” the court wrote.
The professor’s final legal option — a request for the state’s Supreme Court to take up the case — was denied in a 4–1 vote. Chief Justice Loretta Rush issued a brief statement confirming the court had reviewed all submitted materials before declining to transfer the case.
Following the decision, the editorial board of the Irish Rover thanked its legal team and supporters, stating that the ruling affirms the integrity of its mission and work.
“With the final and definitive dismissal of this baseless case,” the editors wrote, “the journalistic integrity of The Irish Rover, as well as the honorable mission of the paper, is upheld.”
