In an unusual move, New York federal court judge Jed Rakoff has called for an evidentiary hearing in Sarah Palin's defamation lawsuit against The New York Times. The lawsuit is just six weeks old, but the judge says he needs to hear from the paper's editorial writer(s) to decide whether the lawsuit should move forward.

Palin, the former Alaska governor who ran as John McCain's presidential running mate in 2008, is suing the Times over an editorial that ran after a gunman opened fire on Republican lawmakers who were practicing for an annual charity game. The editorial originally linked one of Palin's political action committee ads to a 2011 mass shooting that severely wounded then-Arizona Congressman Gabby Giffords. After the editorial ran, the paper issued a correction acknowledging that no link had been established.

Palin claims the newspaper published something it "knew to be false," which would constitute actual malice, a necessary element in defamation actions brought by public figures.