Hutchinson v. Proxmire, 443 U.S. 111 (1979), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the Court held that statements made by a Senator in newsletters and press releases were not protected by the Speech or Debate Clause. Background In 1975, Senator William Proxmire created the "Golden Fleece Award" for governmental agencies that sponsored programs and research which Proxmire considered a waste of tax dollars. Proxmire awarded a Golden Fleece to federal agencies sponsoring the research of behavioral scientist Ronald Hutchinson. Proxmire discussed Hutchinson's work, which he called "nonsense", in detail on the Senate floor, in conferences with his staff, and in a newsletter sent to over 100,000 of his constituents. The newsletter, which did not use Hutchinson's name, reported that "[t]he NSF, the Space Agency, and the Office of Naval Research won the 'Golden Fleece' for spending jointly $500,000 to determine why monkeys clench their jaws." Hutchinson sued Proxmire for libel, claiming that Proxmire's statements were defamatory and that he had been damaged by these libelous statements. Hutchinson filed a lawsuit against Proxmire in the United States District Court for the Western District of Wisconsin claiming $8 million in damages for defamation, malicious conduct or conduct with grossly negligent disregard for the truth, invasion of rights to privacy, and intentional infliction of emotional anguish. The district court considered the following questions: Whether a press release issued by the United States Senate Service Department containing similar content to a Senate floor speech made by Proxmire was privileged under the Speech or Debate Clause of the United States constitution. Whether statements made by Proxmire were libelous or defamatory. The respondents moved for summary judgment. The district court held that the press release was privileged under the Speech or Debate Clause, writing the "press release, in a constitutional sense, was no different than would have been a television or radio broadcast of his speech from the Senate floor." On the question of defamation, the district court considered whether Hutchinson was a public figure: Given Dr. Hutchinson's long involvement with publicly funded research, his active solicitation of federal and state grants, the local press coverage of his research, and the public interest in the expenditure of public funds on the precise activities in which he voluntarily participated, the court concludes that he is a public figure for the purpose of this suit. As he acknowledged in his deposition, "Certainly, any expenditure of