[habinero]

Nope, not in the US. It is perfectly legal to say, for example, "Kyle Rittenhouse is a murderer" despite him being acquitted. You're entirely free to disagree with the result, that is an opinion. Any opinion based on public knowledge is ok. It doesn't even have to be reasonable or rational.

What you can't do is imply non-public knowledge, aka "I heard from my cousin who works in law enforcement that Kyle murdered a hobo when he was 12 but the records were sealed", or state specific facts that can be proven true or false: "Kyle murdered a hobo on September 11, 2018 out back of the 7-11 in Gainesville, FL"

The standard for libel/slander is much, much higher than people think. It's extremely difficult to meet them, and for public figures, it's almost impossible.

[tshaddox]

Is “opinion versus fact” relevant to that example? My impression is that Kyle Rittenhouse wouldn’t have a strong defamation case against a random person tweeting that he’s a murderer, but the reason isn’t that “it’s a statement of opinion.” The reason is that it’s a high profile and controversial homicide case, and it would be very difficult for Rittenhouse to show that that the random Twitter user had “actual malice.”

[otterley]

> It is perfectly legal to say, for example, "Kyle Rittenhouse is a murderer" despite him being acquitted.

That's ... not quite true. I wouldn't go that far.

[habinero]

Sure it is, that's how the 1A works. Saying he was convicted of murder is not true, but calling him a murderer is an opinion. Your opinion doesn't even have to be reasonable. It just has to be based on facts that both you and I have.

1A rights are construed really broadly. The courts don't do the 'he wasn't legally convicted therefore it's illegal to call him one' thing.