An Iowa court dismissed President Trump’s lawsuit against veteran pollster J. Ann Selzer and the Des Moines Register on Wednesday, marking another legal defeat in Trump’s ongoing campaign to punish a survey that badly missed his 2024 election margin.
The result was reported out in a press release by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), the legal advocacy group defending Selzer and the Register.
Judge Scott Beattie ruled the lawsuit tried to twist Iowa law far beyond its actual limits, effectively treating constitutionally protected speech as if it were a punishable offense.
Selzer’s attorney, FIRE Chief Counsel Bob Corn-Revere, said the outcome vindicated what his team had argued from day one. “We’re pleased that the court recognized what we’ve said all along: This lawsuit was laughable from the beginning and never should have been brought,” Corn-Revere said.
The suit stemmed from Selzer’s final pre-election Iowa poll, which showed Kamala Harris leading by three points, a result that ended up far off from Trump’s actual win in the state. Trump’s legal team argued the inaccurate poll amounted to consumer fraud under Iowa law, but FIRE countered that commentary on an election is core protected speech, and that “fake news” is a political insult, not a legal claim, while genuine fraud requires proof of intentional deception for financial gain.
Notably, Trump filed the suit just hours before a new Iowa anti-SLAPP law took effect, a law designed specifically to shift the cost of baseless litigation onto the person who filed it. A separate, similarly-themed class action against Selzer, which also included Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Trump appointee Brad Zaun as plaintiffs, was already dismissed by a federal court back in November.
Selzer has maintained throughout the dispute that she published her full methodology, data crosstabs, and analysis publicly after the election, standing by the transparency of her work even as the results proved embarrassing.
“Polling is a social science, not clairvoyance, and no responsible pollster can guarantee an election outcome,” Selzer said. “I am grateful that Judge Beattie’s ruling recognizes these principles and reaffirms the fundamental freedom to pursue and publish the truth without political interference.”
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