An Iowa state judge has thrown out a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump and two Republican candidates against pollster J. Ann Selzer and the Des Moines Register over a 2024 pre-election poll that showed Democrats leading in Iowa. Judge Scott Beattie dismissed all claims, holding that the poll and its reporting were fully protected political speech under the First Amendment.
Beattie wrote that falsity alone does not remove speech from First Amendment protection. The fraud exception is narrow and requires a false claim made to secure money or other valuable consideration. The court found the Iowa Poll was a snapshot estimate about a future event, not a provably false statement of fact, and that no plaintiff alleged Selzer communicated with them, solicited anything, or that they relied on the poll to part with money.
Independently, the court said the petition failed to state claims under Iowa law: no prohibited act in connection with consumer merchandise, no ascertainable loss, no reliance, and no duty running from a pollster or newspaper to a candidate. Either ground alone would have required dismissal, the judge said.
The plaintiffs had argued campaign expenditures to offset the poll constituted damages, but the court said harm to a plaintiff does not establish that speech was used to obtain money or property from him. Selzer was represented by the free-speech group FIRE.