Court Dismisses Trump Lawsuit Over 2024 Poll That Showed Kamala Harris Leading Presidential Race In Iowa

One of President Trump’s attacks against the news media appears to have hit a legal dead end, with an Iowa court dismissing a lawsuit filed by the president against a pollster and one of the state’s newspapers. The setback comes as the president continues to attack individual people and major outlets within the mainstream media.

Judge dismisses Trump lawsuit over inaccurate 2024 poll

The Washington Post reported that Iowa district court Judge Scott J. Beattie dismissed a lawsuit filed by Trump against political pollster J. Ann Selzer, president of Selzer & Company, and the Des Moines Register newspaper. Trump sued over a 2024 poll that showed Kamala Harris leading, claiming that the pollster who conducted the survey and the newspaper that printed it had both intentionally published incorrect results; Trump accused the pollster and paper of committing “fraud” in order to “grab national and international headlines.” Judge Beattie rejected the president’s lawsuit on free speech grounds, arguing that the publication of the poll was protected by the First Amendment “because it involves a conversation between a pollster and a voter and because the poll itself is speech.” Beattie dismissed the suit with prejudice, thus preventing Trump from filing it again.

Blavity reported on the poll in 2024, noting that it showed Harris with a surprising 46% to 44% lead over Trump among likely voters in Iowa, a reversal from a September poll that had Trump ahead in the solidly Red state. The poll was conducted by Selzer & Company, which had a very strong track record predicting the results of Iowa’s elections. After the Des Moines Register published the November 2024 poll, Trump dismissed the poll as “one heavily skewed toward the Democrats by a Trump hater who called it totally wrong the last time,” even though Selzer’s had accurately predicted Trump’s 2020 victory in Iowa. After winning Iowa by 14 points, Trump filed his lawsuit against Selzer and the Register; two Iowa Republicans, Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and former state Senator Brad Zaun, joined Trump’s action against the pollster and newspaper. Selzer, meanwhile, was defended by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), which celebrated the lawsuit’s dismissal. “This lawsuit was laughable from the beginning and never should have been brought,” FIRE Chief Counsel Bob Corn-Revere said in a statement. “The First Amendment does not allow anyone in government, least of all the president, to punish people under the banner of ‘fake news.’ That may work for him as a campaign slogan, but it is not a thing in the law.”

Trump’s fights against the media hit roadblocks in court

Trump has a long history of attacking individual journalists and media figures, often women, with both insults and sometimes threats of legal or regulatory action. Trump has also used lawsuits and threats of regulatory scrutiny against news outlets that have published or aired unfavorable coverage toward him, creating a disturbing pattern that many believe violates the First Amendment protections for speech and the press. Specifically concerning coverage of Harris during the 2024 presidential election, Trump sued CBS over an interview with Harris that aired on 60 Minutes, claiming that the program edited Harris to appear more favorably. Many within 60 Minutes felt that the lawsuit against CBS served as an intimidation tactic and led to increased editorial interference over stories that were critical of the Trump administration.

Although Trump’s legal tactics have appeared to have successfully influenced other media outlets, Judge Beattie concluded that the lawsuit against Selzer and the Register “seeks to stretch both Iowa statutory and common law beyond their current bounds, turning speech that enjoys the highest category of First Amendment protection into a liability.” Trump has appealed the dismissal. Trump’s lawsuit against Selzer and the Register was dismissed as the president continues to fight a legal battle with reporters from CNN, MS NOW and POLITICO after he banned the three news outlets from covering the White House, accusing them of “reporting fake news.” Reporters from the three organizations have been ordered back to the White House by a judge while their First Amendment case continues.

President Trump and his administration show no signs of slowing down their attacks against media figures and outlets that cover the president in less than flattering ways. As Trump appeals the dismissal of his Iowa lawsuit and fights to uphold his ban on White House reporters, the courts will have to continue to decide how far the First Amendment goes and what limits exist against the White House’s attacks on freedoms of speech and the press.

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