[otterley]

To be more accurate, defamation is civil tort law, circumscribed by the First Amendment. (Defamation as a cause of action is quite old, reaching back to our English common law roots, and goes back further in history, I believe.)

[habinero]

That's more general, not more accurate. Civil tort law is a broad class of things. It's like saying "to be more accurate, a supermarket is a type of store". Well, yes.