Mariah Carey Wins Dismissal of Her Brother's Memoir Lawsuit. The Court Settled the Law, Not the Family.

The facts come first below. My opinion follows in the section marked as opinion.

A New York judge has thrown out Morgan Carey's defamation lawsuit against his sister, Mariah Carey, over her bestselling 2020 memoir, ending for now a court fight that began five years ago. He says he will appeal.

In a Monday order, Justice Leslie A. Stroth ruled that Morgan Carey had not met the legal requirements to sue over passages in "The Meaning of Mariah Carey," Billboard reported. The passages suggested he had sold cocaine and done prison time. Because Mariah Carey is a public figure, New York law required her brother to plead "actual malice," meaning that she made the statements knowing they were false or with reckless disregard for the truth.

"Plaintiff fails to provide any proof that Defendant made such statements with knowledge of their falsity or with reckless disregard for the truth," the judge wrote. She added, according to TheWrap, "While plaintiff alleges that Defendant demonstrates ill will towards her brother, such statement is insufficient." The court dismissed the case in its entirety.

Five years in court

Morgan Carey sued in May 2021, a few months after the memoir hit No. 1 on The New York Times bestseller list. He claimed it portrayed him as violent and a "sometimes" drug dealer and put his damages at more than $20 million, TheWrap reported. His original complaint said he brought the case "more in sorrow and disappointment in his sister's betrayals and malicious falsehoods than in anger at them."

The first judge on the case, Barbara Jaffe, threw out many of his claims in 2022. She let two go forward, Billboard reported: a passage saying he sold "powdered party favors" to clubgoers in the 1980s, and another saying he had "been in the system." After Jaffe retired, the case went to Stroth, who focused on actual malice and found that it doomed the whole suit.

"Ms. Carey is gratified that the Court recognized that her memoir addresses significant issues of public interest," her lawyer, John Rosenberg, told Billboard. He said the ruling "confirms that authors must be afforded broad protection when they speak out on matters of public concern." Morgan Carey's lawyer, Richard Altman, said, "We respectfully disagree with today's decision as being completely inconsistent with prior rulings in the case. We intend to appeal it very soon," according to TheWrap. Yahoo Entertainment also reported the dismissal and the planned appeal.

Opinion: The court settled the law. It could not settle the family.

The ruling was right on the law. Public figures, and people writing about their own lives, need room to speak, and the actual-malice standard protects that. But notice what the judge did not decide. She did not find that the passages were true. She found only that her brother had not shown that his sister knew they were false. A courtroom can answer the second question. Only the people involved can answer the first.

That is the sad part of this story. A brother and sister have spent five years in court over a book about their own family, and the fight may go on. Scripture warned long ago that "a brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city." Paul told the Corinthians that when "brother goeth to law with brother," it is already "utterly a fault," and asked, "why do ye not rather take wrong?"

Memoirs sell when they reveal family wounds, and lawsuits follow when the wounds are reopened in print. There is a better way, harder and quieter: say the hard things to each other in private, forgive where you can, and leave the rest with God. "Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." I hope that before any appeal is heard, the Careys find their way back to it.

For more on the entertainment business this week, see Dock Line's Jon Stewart Extends 'The Daily Show' Deal Through 2028.