Explosive! Audrey Clement’s Lawsuit Against The Washington Post Just Got Dismissed—What This Means for the Future

The lawsuit filed by a recurring Arlington County Board candidate against The Washington Post has been thrown out. After hearing oral arguments this week, a D.C. district court judge dismissed Audrey Clement’s lawsuit, which claimed age discrimination and defamation, according to court documents.

The court’s ruling was “all but a foregone conclusion,” Clement told ARLnow, but she intends to appeal. The Post published a candidate questionnaire in October 2021, which was the subject of the complaint.

According to the Post, Clement claimed to be 52 years old on the questionnaire, but an examination of official documents revealed that she was actually 72. A correction and a follow-up article detailing the disparity were published by the publication.

Clement claimed that the Post’s questionnaire and subsequent reporting were in violation of the Age Discrimination Act of 1975 in a pro se legal action submitted to the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in February.

In programs or activities that receive Federal financial aid, age discrimination is prohibited. “Any entry other than a positive number was rejected by the candidate form, and it would not submit when I left the field blank,” she stated.

“The Post forced me to report protected information in this way or risk missing the chance to reach a larger audience with my candidate outreach efforts.” The Post asserted in a request to dismiss that Clement never questioned the veracity of the publication’s reporting.

Furthermore, the newspaper contended that candidates are not “compelled” to respond to a voluntary questionnaire and that publishing factual material does not amount to defamation.

Further Claims

It also claimed to have discovered Clement’s exact date of birth in voter registration documents and a traffic ticket. Furthermore, the Post said that Clement had not initially demonstrated how the privately held newspaper would be governed by the 1975 Age Discrimination Act.

According to Clement, the court concurred with this final issue, concluding that “procurement contracts of the type [the Post] negotiates with the federal government do not constitute federal assistance,” as reported by ARLnow.

This indicates that the newspaper is, in fact, exempt from the 1975 Age Discrimination Act, the court concluded. “I find solace in the fact that I have a lot of company among other public office candidates, the majority of whom are over 40,” Clement stated.

“This decision not only violates their rights, but also the rights of innumerable other Americans, whose Age Discrimination Act of 1975 right to withhold their age from institutions that don’t need to know.”