Kennedy v. Item Co. The Right to a Good Name is an Inalienable Right

The very foundation upon which the law of libel is laid is the protection of reputation. The right to a good name and fame is as absolute and as essential to the ‘pursuit of happiness’ as is the right to life and liberty, characterized in our Declaration of Independence as among those ‘inalienable rights with which all men, being created equal, are endowed by their Creator.’ A man’s reputation is recognized to be as invaluable, and is given the same dignity in the Bill of Rights that comprises Article I of our constitution, as his right to due process of law in the protection of his life, liberty, and property (Section 2); freedom of religion (Section 4), freedom of speech and of the press (Section 3); peaceable assemblage (Section 5); and freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures (Section 7); for in Section 6 of this article we find the guaranty that ‘All courts shall be open, and every person for injury done him in his rights, lands, goods, person or reputation shall have adequate remedy by due process of law and justice administered without denial, partiality or unreasonable delay.’ Thus the general declaration in Section 3 of the Bill of Rights that ‘No law shall ever be passed to curtail or restrain *359 the liberty of speech or of the press,’ is not only qualified by the clause immediately following that ‘any person may speak, write and publish his sentiments on all subjects, being responsible for the abuse of that liberty,’ but also by the specific guaranty in Section 6 that the courts are open for the redress of injury to reputation by the irresponsible use of the right to freely express one’s sentiments. See, Fitzpatrick v. Daily States Pub. Co., 48 La.Ann. 1116, 20 So. 173, 180, Simpson v. Robinson, 104 La. 180, 28 So. 908 and Edwards v. Derrick, 193 La. 331, 190 So. 571. (Italics ours.)

Kennedy v. Item Co., 213 La. 347, 358–59, 34 So. 2d 886, 890 (1948)