The lawsuit centers around an editorial that the Times published in June 2017, shortly after a shooting that left Republican Congressman Steve Scalise wounded.

The piece, entitled "America's Lethal Politics" discussed the shooting that wounded Scalise, as well as the 2011 shooting that left former Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords wounded and six others dead. The editorial implied that the man who shot at Giffords and others, Jared Loughner, was inspired by a map circulated by Palin's Sarah PAC, writing at the time that the map "targeted electoral districts that put Ms. Giffords ... under stylized cross hairs."

The paper later issued a correction and edited the piece to say that the map "showed the targeted electoral districts of Ms. Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized cross hairs."