Back in April, retired NBA worldwide mega-star Shaquille O’Neal took to Instagram to mock Jahmel Binion who suffers from ectodermal dysplasia. Now, Binion has filed a defamation lawsuit against O'Neal seeking $25,000 in damages.
Binion's lawsuit behavior is uglier than his looks. If Binion wants to live the right way, he should have said he feels sorry for Shaq's expressed ugliness, an ugliness far worse than Binion's genetic deformity.
However tough Binion's life must be, he doesn't have a legal leg to stand upon. A better lawyer will frame it as distasteful First Amendment expression.
Our founders were right to give us the First Amendment. Anyone is free (at liberty, Congress cannot make any law) to express oneself in public in any manner, about anything. That is what the First Amendment is about.
Shaq pulled a bonehead move (celebs should quit social media), and however distasteful, not only Shaq but all of us are free to do the same with public material.
Shaq should fight him to the fullest and then donate ten times the sum sought to the NGO which seeks a cure to this genetic disorder.
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