A US judge said Monday he would dismiss a libel lawsuit brought by former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin against the New York Times, ruling she had failed to prove her case, US media reported.

The announcement came while the New York jury was still considering its verdict.

Palin, the 58-year-old former Alaska governor and one-time darling of the conservative Tea Party movement, had claimed the paper intentionally harmed her reputation with a 2017 editorial that suggested her campaign rhetoric had helped incite a mass shooting.

Legal experts said a ruling in her favor would have had huge implications for journalistic freedom of expression in the United States.

District Judge Jed Rakoff said he would toss out the case, agreeing with a motion filed by the Times last week that argued that Palin‘s lawyers had not proved the Times had acted with malice.

The New York Times reported that Rakoff said he would let the jury reach its verdict before issuing the dismissal in case of an appeal.

He said that an appeals court “would greatly benefit from knowing how the jury would decide” the case, the Times reported.

Palin’s lawsuit, in which she sought unspecified damages, had been viewed as test case for the First Amendment, which protects freedom of the press.