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First Amendment experts say Mr. Trump’s lawsuits, based on an unproven legal theory, lack merit. But more could be on the way.
By David Enrich
David Enrich’s latest book, to be published in March, is about the weaponization of libel law and the campaign to limit press freedoms.
Feb. 7, 2025, 11:10 a.m. ET
Media lawyers scoffed last year when President Trump sued two news organizations for producing journalism that, he claimed, violated laws meant to protect consumers from things like deceptive advertising.
They’re not laughing anymore.
First Amendment experts still believe that Mr. Trump’s cases, against CBS News and The Des Moines Register, lack legal merit. But they now also realize that the lawsuits are proving effective at harassing the press — and that more of them are probably on the way.
The focus of the experts’ concern is the decision within Paramount, CBS’s parent company, to try to settle one of those lawsuits, showing that even a far-fetched legal argument can yield results. CBS would be the second major media company to recently reach a settlement with Mr. Trump, after ABC paid $16 million to resolve a defamation suit in December.
The settlement talks between Paramount and Mr. Trump are likely to encourage the president, his allies and others to continue deploying the new strategy of suing media companies under consumer protection laws, said Adam Steinbaugh, a lawyer representing a defendant in The Des Moines Register suit.
“What gets rewarded gets repeated,” said Mr. Steinbaugh, who works for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression.
Daniel Suhr, the president of the Center for American Rights, a conservative legal group that has filed a similar lawsuit against The Register, said the goal of the consumer protection cases was partly to send a warning to other news outlets.
