On November 6, 2023, Palin asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to revive her defamation lawsuit against The New York Times, which was dismissed on March 15, 2022. Palin's 2023 court filings argued that her case shows “why the actual malice rule was ill-conceived and should no longer be applied” and that the standard gives journalists too much protection. Judge John Walker rejected this argument, saying, “Why isn’t that a question for the Supreme Court to decide? ... We have a precedent we have to deal with, New York Times v. Sullivan.” On March 17, 2022, Palin notified U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff that she would appeal his dismissal of the libel suit. Palin originally brought the suit in 2017 after the Times published a piece from former editorial page editor James Bennet. The New York Daily News described the editorial in the following way: “ The article, "America’s Lethal Politics," linked ads distributed by Palin’s political action committee SarahPAC to the 2011 shooting of then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). The gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, killed six people, including a 9-year-old girl and a federal judge. Writing “the link to political incitement was clear” in the Giffords attack, The Times incorrectly suggested the SarahPAC graphic put “Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized crosshairs.” The graphic placed Giffords’ electoral district in crosshairs, not the representative herself. ” Politico wrote, "The Times issued two corrections to the disputed editorial within hours, but Palin claimed they were inadequate and that the publication damaged her reputation, leading to fewer speaking engagements and requests for political help." The updated editorial can be found here. On February 14, 2022, Rakoff said Palin's suit didn't meet the actual malice standard: "I don’t think a reasonable juror could conclude that Mr. Bennet either knew the statements were false or that he thought the statements were false and he recklessly disregarded that high probability." Rakoff said, "I think this is an example of very unfortunate editorializing on the part of the Times but, having said that, that’s not the issue before this court." According to Politico, "Rakoff said he would continue to allow the jury to deliberate to a verdict, arguing that an appeal in the case seems inevitable and that the jury’s verdict could be useful to the appeals court." On February 15, 2022, the jury found the Times not liable. Resignation as governor (2009) On July 3, 2009, Palin announced she would resign as Alaska's governor effective July 26. Palin said the following in her resignation announcement: “ Political operatives descended on Alaska last August, digging for dirt. The ethics law that I championed became their weapon of choice. Over the past nine months, I've been accused of all sorts of frivolous ethics violations, such as holding a fish in a photograph or wearing a jacket with a logo on it and answering reporters' questions. Every one of these, though, all 15 of the ethics complaints have been dismissed. We have won, but it hasn't been cheap. The state has wasted thousands of hours of your time and shelled out some 2 million of your dollars to respond to opposition research. And that's money that's not going to fund teachers or troopers or safer roads. And this political absurdity, the politics of personal destruction, Todd and I, we're looking at more than half a million dollars in legal bills just in order to set the record straight. And what about the people who offer up these silly accusations? It doesn't cost them a dime, so they're not going to stop draining the public resources, spending other people's money in this game. They won't stop. It's pretty insane. My staff and I spend most of our day, we're dealing with this stuff instead of progressing our state now. And I know that I promised no more politics as usual, but this isn't what anyone had in mind for Alaska. ... So I choose for my state and for my family more freedom to progress all the way around so that Alaska may progress. I will not seek reelection as governor. And so, as I thought about this announcement, that I wouldn't run for reelection and what that means for Alaska, I thought about, well, how much fun some governors have as lame ducks. They maybe travel around their state and travel to other states, maybe take their overseas international trade missions. So many politicians do that. And then I thought, that's what's wrong. Many just accept that lame-duck status, and they hit the road, they draw a paycheck, they kind of milk it. And I'm not going to put Alaskans through that. ” Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell (R) succeeded Palin as governor.

On March 17, 2022, Palin notified U.S. District Court Judge Jed Rakoff she was appealing his dismissal of her libel suit against The New York Times. Palin brought the suit after the Times published a piece from former editorial page editor James Bennet in 2017. The New York Daily News described the editorial in the following way: “ The article, "America’s Lethal Politics," linked ads distributed by Palin’s political action committee SarahPAC to the 2011 shooting of then-Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). The gunman, Jared Lee Loughner, killed six people, including a 9-year-old girl and a federal judge. Writing “the link to political incitement was clear” in the Giffords attack, The Times incorrectly suggested the SarahPAC graphic put “Giffords and 19 other Democrats under stylized crosshairs.” The graphic placed Giffords’ electoral district in crosshairs, not the representative herself. ” Politico wrote, "The Times issued two corrections to the disputed editorial within hours, but Palin claimed they were inadequate and that the publication damaged her reputation, leading to fewer speaking engagements and requests for political help." The updated editorial can be found here. On February 14, 2022, Rakoff said Palin's suit didn't meet the actual malice standard: "I don’t think a reasonable juror could conclude that Mr. Bennet either knew the statements were false or that he thought the statements were false and he recklessly disregarded that high probability." Rakoff said, "I think this is an example of very unfortunate editorializing on the part of the Times but, having said that, that’s not the issue before this court." According to Politico, "Rakoff said he would continue to allow the jury to deliberate to a verdict, arguing that an appeal in the case seems inevitable and that the jury’s verdict could be useful to the appeals court." On February 15, the jury found the Times not liable. Resignation as governor (2009) On July 3, 2009, Palin announced she would resign as Alaska's governor effective July 26. Palin said the following in her resignation announcement: “ Political operatives descended on Alaska last August, digging for dirt. The ethics law that I championed became their weapon of choice. Over the past nine months, I've been accused of all sorts of frivolous ethics violations, such as holding a fish in a photograph or wearing a jacket with a logo on it and answering reporters' questions. Every one of these, though, all 15 of the ethics complaints have been dismissed. We have won, but it hasn't been cheap. The state has wasted thousands of hours of your time and shelled out some 2 million of your dollars to respond to opposition research. And that's money that's not going to fund teachers or troopers or safer roads. And this political absurdity, the politics of personal destruction, Todd and I, we're looking at more than half a million dollars in legal bills just in order to set the record straight. And what about the people who offer up these silly accusations? It doesn't cost them a dime, so they're not going to stop draining the public resources, spending other people's money in this game. They won't stop. It's pretty insane. My staff and I spend most of our day, we're dealing with this stuff instead of progressing our state now. And I know that I promised no more politics as usual, but this isn't what anyone had in mind for Alaska. ... So I choose for my state and for my family more freedom to progress all the way around so that Alaska may progress. I will not seek reelection as governor. And so, as I thought about this announcement, that I wouldn't run for reelection and what that means for Alaska, I thought about, well, how much fun some governors have as lame ducks. They maybe travel around their state and travel to other states, maybe take their overseas international trade missions. So many politicians do that. And then I thought, that's what's wrong. Many just accept that lame-duck status, and they hit the road, they draw a paycheck, they kind of milk it. And I'm not going to put Alaskans through that. ” Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell (R) succeeded Palin as governor.