Do the libel laws apply to blogs? As a new blogger and someone who LOVED studying the First Amendment in law school, I think this is an interesting, though largely unanswered, question.

Tuesday, a very interesting article by Laura Parker ran in USA Today that was picked up by Yahoo. The article, Courts are asked to crack down on bloggers, websites, highlights several trends and cases that shed tiny beams on this question. Because people can post anything on a blog, it’s not always true information or information that the person being written about wants made public. And more of those who feel defamed are fighting back.

According to the article, the first verdicts are coming out against bloggers.

So what can we do? Make sure what we write is true. But even more, I think if we follow Philippians 4:8, we’ll be okay. “Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable–if anything is excellent or praiseworthy–think about such things.”

Or in this case, write about such things.