COHEN V.

COWLES 1

Cohen v. Cowles Media Company Case

Raiyona Rice

North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University

COHEN V. COWLES 2

Abstract

This paper discusses the case of Cohen v. Cowles Media Company, where two newspaper

companies published stories about a lieutenant governor nominee, exposing that Daniel Cohen

was the one who released the details to them. Both the First Amendment rights and promissory

estoppel. According to the JUSTIA, the Primary Holding from the Cohen v. Cowles Media

Company case is the following:

“Generally applicable laws that happen to affect the press are not unconstitutional under the First

Amendment.”
COHEN V. COWLES 3

Cohen v. Cowles Media Company Case

Daniel Willard Cohen was born on June 10, 1936, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Now at 84

years old, he has done many things that have made him happy and allowed him to become well

known in his community. Cohen attended and graduated from Breck School, the prestigious

Stanford University (where Cohen met his wife, former Gail Sullivan), and the Ivy League

Harvard Law School (Cohen, 2013). While Cohen and his wife ran a successful Thoroughbred

horse business for many years, he decided to become an author of over 20 different books (TCD,

2021).

Daniel Cohen stated. "My family history in Minneapolis goes back 120 years (Dan.

2019). His father was a Jewish immigrant who came to Minneapolis because relatives from his

village decided to move to Minneapolis.

In 1965, when Cohen was 26, he was elected to City Council, and he stayed in that

position for two years until he upgraded to the City Council President. While happily running as

City Council President from 1967 to 1969, he decided that he didn't want to stop there; he

wanted to do more. Cohen agreed to be City Council President, but he was also the original

sponsor of the Minneapolis Industrial Development Commission.

In 1969, Daniel Cohen went out on a leap of faith and ran for Minneapolis mayor;

unfortunately, he was defeated by Charles Stenvig. Although he lost, he held endorsements from

the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party (DFL), the Republican party, and President Richard Nixon

himself. After that, Cohen later ended up moving to Washington D.C. to serve as Special

Assistant to the Director of the Peace Corps. He continued to do excellent service and began to
COHEN V. COWLES 4

serve on the Minneapolis Planning Commission for four years in the 1970s, then in 2009, and

from 2013 to the present. Daniel Cohen stated:

“By then, my career had shifted from law and politics to writing and advertising

(Cohen, 2013)." He refers to himself as a member of the Board of Contributors of the "old"

Minneapolis Star and becoming an author.

On June 18, 2013, Dan Cohen concluded that it was time for him to try again, but this

time ran for Minneapolis Mayor. Furthermore, he was defeated for a second time, tragically

landing 7th out of 35th. Although Cohen had done so many great things, touched so many lives in

his times of service, and has many accomplishments, many only seem to remember Cohen from

the Cohen v. Cowles Media case.

Petitioner Daniel Cohen was a campaign associate for a republican candidate in the 1982

Minnesota gubernatorial race (Oyez, 2021). This specific case was about determining if a

newspaper's breach of a reporter's anonymity promise to a news source is legally enforceable.

Cohen decided to give court records to two newspaper companies. St. Paul Pioneer Press and the

Minneapolis Star and Tribune about a lieutenant governor nominee. Unfortunately, both

newspaper companies exposed to the public that Dan Cohen was the one who released the details

to them. And by telling the people, they released additional information that they received, such

as his name and where he worked out (Justia, 2021). When this was discovered, Cohen was fired

the same day, and the articles were published to the public from his job. Cowles Media Company

promised Dan Cohen that they would keep the information they received from him

confidentially; however, that did not happen.

COHEN V. COWLES 5

The newspapers stated that the information Daniel Cohen gave them turned out to be both

old and insignificant. The information was unnecessary and did not need to be presented to them.

They determined that the real story was not the information Cohen supplied but, instead, Cohen's

tactics in spreading dirt under the disguise of anonymity about a rival candidate, Marlene

Johnson. They then realized he was known to be tied to the other candidate, and it was needed

for his identity to be revealed, in their opinion (Casebriefs, 2021).

The plaintiff, Dan Cohen, sued the defendants Northwest Publications, Inc., publisher of

the St. Paul Pioneer Press Dispatch (Pioneer Press), and Cowles Media Company, publisher of

the Minneapolis Star and Tribune (Star Tribune) (Justia, 2021). The suit was alleging a breach of

contract, among several other things.

The court originally first rejected his argument since they have jurisdiction. They

believed that the case should be dismissed due to the promissory estoppel not being argued or

presented in the courts. According to Cornell Law, promissory estoppel is a doctrine that a party

may recover based on a promise made when the parties' reliance on that promise was reasonable

and the party attempting to recover relied on the promise hugely. Cohen sought damages for a

breach of promise that caused him to lose his job, lowered his earning capacity, and did not

attempt to use a promissory estoppel cause of action to avoid the strict requirements for

establishing a libel or defamation claim (Justia, 2021).

Cohen also sent a request to the court for his compensatory damages award to be

reinstated, but it was rejected. The verdict's issue was whether or not his verdict she be upheld on

the ground that a promissory estoppel claim had been established under state law (Justia, 2021).
COHEN V. COWLES 6

The jury ended up awarding the plaintiff 200,00 in compensatory damage and $250,000

against each defendant. The United States Supreme Court granted certiorari and reversed, finding

that the First Amendment was not implicated. The case was remanded back to the Minnesota

Supreme Court (case briefs, 2021), where they had to determine a verdict.

Neither side (the plaintiff and the defendant) in this case is on a high “moral” ground.

Although they are not on a high more ground, the Defendant’s witnesses testified to the

importance of protecting the identity of sources. This testifies helped to a great extent. There was

no need for the promise to be broken, unlike what the defendants believed before the trial.

Justice White is the person who delivered the opinion of the court. He stated the

following:

“The question before us is whether the First Amendment prohibits a plaintiff from

recovering damages, under state promissory estoppel law, for a newspaper's breach of a promise

of confidentiality given to the plaintiff in exchange for information. We hold that it does not

(Justia, 2021.)”

In the end, the Supreme Court had the Minnesota court change its decision. Cohen

received $200,000 at the end of the case. Although Cohen lost his employment, he was still able

to receive a damage award by the trial court. The main issue that appeared, in this case, was

whether the law should impose a legal obligation on a moral and ethical obligation (case briefs,

2021).

Overall, this case took a few months. There were many different decisions. Many believe

the verdict was up in the air after the few changes, but in the end, Daniel Cohen ultimately won

his case and still received his $200,000.

COHEN V. COWLES 7

The case of Cohen v.Cowles was a trial that many say needed to happen. In the case

Cohen v Cowles Media Company, the Supreme Court the promissory estoppel for the first time

(Cornell Law, 2021). They recognized it as the following:

“a state law doctrine creating legal obligations never explicitly assumed by the parties

that are enforceable.” According to Cornell Law, the definition of the first amendment is the

following:

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the

free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the

people peaceably to assemble. And to petition the government, for a redress of grievance.”

In the Cohen V. Cowles Media case, the court upheld a waiver of First Amendment rights, but it

was only to enforce an agreement of confidentiality between the two parties (Barron, 1994).

In the Cohen v Cowles Media, the main concern was the following:

“Does the First Amendment bar a plaintiff from recovering damages, under state

promissory estoppel law, for a newspaper's breach of a promise of confidentiality (Oyez, 2021?)

In Conclusion, Cohen now and has been a horseman for many years. Other than dealing

with thoroughbreds, he also owns horses primarily for racing at Canterbury Park. He has also

been on the Board of the Minnesota Thoroughbred Association, and currently, he is serving on

the Thoroughbred Breeders Fund Allocation Advisory Committee to the Minnesota Racing

Commission.
COHEN V. COWLES 8

Work Cited
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https://www.oyez.org/cases/1990/90-634
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https://www.casebriefs.com/blog/law/contracts/contracts-keyed-to-murphy/the-bargain-
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https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/501/663ocument.
Dan Cohen. (n.d.). Retrieved March 04, 2021, from
https://web.archive.org/web/20131014193753/http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/profiles/dan-
cohen/bio
First amendment. (n.d.). Retrieved March 05, 2021, from
https://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/first_amendment
Promissory estoppel. (n.d.). Retrieved March 05, 2021, from
https://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/promissory_estoppel