The third time could be the charm for Governor Palin’s defamation retrial against the New York Times, now scheduled for April 14 — unless both the Alaskan and the Gray Lady settle outside of court. Comments from attorneys for both sides and from the judge in the longrunning case suggest a settlement is very much in the cards.

The stakes of Ms. Palin’s case against the Gray Lady have only grown as tensions escalate between President Trump and the press. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court precedent that governs defamation law — New York Times v. Sullivan, decided by a unanimous court in 1964 — could be ripe for revisiting.

Ms. Palin is suing the New York Times which it issued in 2017 and  which inaccurately linked her rhetoric in 2008 to the 2011 shooting in Arizona that killed six people and gravely wounded Congresswoman Gabby Giffords. The Times published a correction below the editorial, which continues to name Ms. Palin, and has vigorously defended itself in the suit during its convoluted journey through the legal system. 

With the political climate toward the press evolving, though, the case may ultimately be resolved with a settlement. During a hearing in November a lawyer for the Times, David Axelrod, mused that “It may be that we don’t need a trial at all.” The presiding judge, Jed Rakoff of the Southern District of New York, reckoned that “I’m all for that if you’re seriously interested in settling. You can settle it in a matter of days.”