An Iowa judge dismissed President Donald Trump’s lawsuit accusing The Des Moines Register and its former pollster, J. Ann Selzer, of misrepresenting the state of the 2024 presidential race. Iowa District Judge Scott J. Beattie rejected the claim that the newspaper’s poll coverage violated Iowa’s consumer fraud law, calling the case extraordinary and stating that allowing the litigation to proceed could have a chilling effect that can discourage others from reporting on and debating public affairs
according to The Guardian.
Iowa Judge Dismisses Donald Trump’s Lawsuit Over 2024 Poll
Trump originally filed the lawsuit in December 2024 against Selzer, the newspaper, and its parent company, Gannett Co. (now known as USA Today Co.). The complaint alleged that the defendants fraudulently published inaccurate poll results to damage Trump and help Democrats. The poll in question, conducted in the final days of October 2024 and released just days before Election Day, showed then-Vice President Kamala Harris capturing 47% of Iowa likely voters to Trump’s 44%. Trump ultimately won 56% of the nearly 2 million Iowans who voted in the election. U.S. Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks and former Iowa state Senator Brad Zaun, both Republicans, joined Trump in the lawsuit, alleging that the coverage diminished their reputations, campaign funds and resources, and valuable time during the final days of the campaign.
First Amendment Protections and Legal Rulings
Judge Beattie ruled that the poll and its coverage constituted constitutionally protected political speech rather than a commercial product. He wrote that Trump’s suit attempted 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.
According to CBS News, the judge concluded that the constitutional protection is too great and the reach is too far. The case must therefore be dismissed.
Beattie noted that the case would fail even if he accepted the allegations—solely for deciding the motions—that the poll was intentionally skewed and its results fabricated, because the lawsuit did not satisfy legal requirements for fraud or consumer deception. Judge Beattie added that ratings, forecasts, and predictions that reflect a subjective weighing of objective data points are not sufficiently factual to be susceptible to proof, and predicting uncertain future events is not an exact science for which a publisher may be held to account,
as reported by Yahoo.
Reactions and Planned Appeal from Legal Team
Following the decision, pollster J. Ann Selzer expressed gratitude for the ruling, stating that reaffirms the fundamental freedom to pursue and publish the truth without political interference.
She added that polling is a social science, not clairvoyance, and no responsible pollster can guarantee an election outcome.
Selzer’s defense was supported by the free speech advocacy group the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE). Polly Grunfeld Sack, chief legal counsel for USA Today Co., hailed the outcome as a victory for the First Amendment — and for the essential role of a free press in American democracy,
according to TwinCities.com.
Conversely, a spokesman for Trump’s personal legal team announced plans to appeal the ruling to the Iowa Supreme Court, maintaining that the newspaper and its co-defendants knowingly ran a phony poll
in an attempt to interfere in the 2024 presidential election.
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