ST. PAUL — Former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura is headed back to court seeking to hang on to a $1.8 million legal judgment against the late “American Sniper” author Chris Kyle.

Ventura prevailed last year in a defamation case against Kyle’s estate. He accused Kyle of making up a story in the book about punching Ventura at a bar in 2006 after Ventura supposedly made offensive remarks about Navy SEALs.

Oral arguments are set for today in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Paul.

First Amendment attorneys argue in a friend-of-the-court brief that the trial judge gave the jury bad instructions on determining whether Kyle was guilty of so-called “actual malice” in his statements.

Ventura’s lawyers counter that the instructions were accurate and that the evidence established Kyle knowingly lied.