If plaintiffs have not waived their First Amendment rights, can they be sued for defamation?

Defendant contends, however, that even if plaintiffs have not waived their First Amendment rights, its inquiry is nonetheless justified under the "compelling interest" standard because plaintiffs' associational activities may be relevant to several potential defenses upon which defendant may wish to rely: statute of limitations, res judicata and failure to mitigate damages. As we explain in the margin, the relationship of such activities to the suggested defenses is extremely tenuous at best; we seriously doubt that the district has made the requisite showing even to justify the disclosure of presumptively privileged information which directly relates to such defenses. (See NAACP v. Alabama, supra, 357 U.S. 449, 463-465, 78 S.Ct. 1163, 2 L.Ed.2d 1488.) ⁴ In evaluating [20 Cal.3d 861] the constitutional

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