[9] In 2007, Panter introduced legislation to exempt military members stationed overseas from paying state income taxes due to their official New Jersey residency.
[12] In October 2017, Panter wrote a social media post providing an account of the sexual harassment he claimed his former partner, a Fox News personality, faced from political commentator Bill O'Reilly.
Powers wrote that "any woman who worked at Fox News knows this is true" with Carlson thanking him for his "strength as a man helping fight sexual harassment."
O’Reilly filed a $5 million defamation lawsuit against Panter in New York on October 26, 2017, calling his account a lie and labeling him a "smear merchant",[14] and repeating his position on The Glenn Beck radio show.
[16] Panter, a Harvard Law grad, proceeded to hire civil rights attorney Lisa Bloom, telling HuffPost that O’Reilly should be "a little smarter than that if they read a little bit about my background.
"[15] Regarding the pending lawsuit, Vanity Fair noted "there are a great many journalists and others who would welcome the opportunity to see what a good libel defense lawyer could uncover about O’Reilly's behavior in the course of discovery.
It seems unlikely that O’Reilly will open himself up to having to answer these types of questions under oath" and saying Panter's account "sure matches what we know of O’Reilly's workplace modus operandi"[18] In November 2018 Newsday reported that a federal judge had dismissed O'Reilly's suit, with Panter stating that the pundit "learned today that no amount of wealth or fame can silence the truth when people with shared principles band together.