Viewing Dexter Allen v. The Pioneer Press (1889.Dexter Allen v. The Pioneer Press (1889.On January 30, 1889, a divided Minnesota Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of "An Act to Regulate Actions for Libel" passed by the 25th Legislature. The challenge to that law arose in late September 1887, when the St. Paul Pioneer Press published a racy item about Del Allen, a Minneapolis businessman, who caught his wife at the opera with another man. The story was wrong: Allen was at work and his wife at home. Though the P. P. immediately retracted the story, the Allens sued it in Hennepin County District Court. Judge Austin Young directed a verdict for the newspaper and the Allens appealed. The Supreme Court held that the question of whether the retraction required by the 1887 law was published in "good faith" was for the jury and remanded the case for trial. It was scheduled for trial on February 15, 1889, when it settled.
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