Taya Kyle and Jesse Ventura’s legal feud may boil down to a constitutional debate. After Ventura won an $1.8 million award from the Kyle estate, Taya Kyle is appealing the court decision on the grounds that the original lawsuit violated the First Amendment.

The Old Trial

Before his death in 2013, ‘American Sniper’ author and Navy SEAL Chris Kyle was embroiled in a lawsuit against one of his former war buddies, fellow SEAL and former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura. In Kyle’s autobiographical book, he describes punching a teammate named “Scruff Face” during a wake for another fallen SEAL. In that scene, Scruff Face also says the SEALs “deserve to lose a few” in the war. After the book became popular, Kyle said the character Scruff Face was based on Ventura.

According to Ventura, that incident never happened. He sued Kyle for defamation arguing that the reference to him damaged his reputation within the SEALs and military community. In a video taped before his death, Kyle testified that the story was true and brought in witnesses who confirmed it. However, the jury ultimately sided with Ventura and ordered the Kyle estate to compensate him with $500,000 for defamation and $1.3 million of ‘American Sniper’s’ profits.

The New Trial

Taya Kyle is not finished with Ventura. With the support of 33 media companies and a prominent First Amendment lawyer, Kyle is appealing for a new trial on the grounds that libel law does not allow the prosecution to share in the defendant’s profits. Ventura’s award of profits from Kyle’s book is unprecedented, and publications such as the Washington Post worry future defamation or first amendment lawsuits might result in the same.

Kyle’s lawyers also argue that Ventura’s case didn’t prove that Kyle knowingly lied in his book. To win a defamation lawsuit, the prosecution needs to prove the libel was committed with “malice.” The legal definition is different from the conventional one, and Kyle says the jury did not understand the difference.