(Photo
by
Evan
Vucci-Pool/Getty
Images)
On
December
16,
Donald
Trump
filed
his
latest
harassing
trollsuit
against
a
media
company
that
said
mean
words
that
hurt
his
feelings.
This
time
the
target
was
Iowa
pollster
J.
Anne
Selzer,
who
projected
that
Vice
President
Harris
would
take
the
state
by
three
points,
a
16-point
whiff.
Trump
sued
her,
along
with
the
Des
Moines
Register
and
its
parent
company
Gannett
Co.,
under
the
state’s
consumer
protection
statute,
his
favorite
“one
weird
trick”
to
get
around
the
First
Amendment.
But
it
turns
out
Trump
was
so
busy
enjoying
all
that
delicious
earned
media
that
he
forgot
to
serve
all
the
defendants
at
once.
Whoopsie
doodle!
And
so
Gannett
used
one
weird
trick
of
its
own
to
get
out
of
the
District
Court
for
Polk
County,
Iowa.
And
this
trick
is
actually
based
on
real
law,
not
just
rebranding
your
SLAPP
suit
as
a
consumer
fraud
action
and
hoping
you
can
force
the
victims
to
spend
a
shitload
of
cash
before
a
judge
tosses
you
out
of
court.
Gannett’s
“trick”
is
the
forum
defendant
rule,
28
U.S.C.
§
1441(b)(2),
which
allows
for
federal
removal
on
the
basis
of
diversity
“if
any
of
the
parties
in
interest
properly
joined
and
served
as
defendants
is
a
citizen
of
the
State
in
which
such
action
is
brought.”
Here,
Trump’s
MAGA
lawyer
filed
the
complaint
on
the
16th,
and
served
Gannett
the
next
day.
But
he
apparently
failed
to
“properly
join
and
serve”
any
of
the
Iowa
parties
(Selzer,
her
company
S&C,
and
the
Register)
at
that
time.
And
that
meant
that
the
Florida
Man
and
Gannett
(a
Delaware
company
doing
business
in
New
York)
were
the
only
players
officially
on
the
field.
As
trademark
lawyer
Mark
Jaffe
observed
on
Bluesky,
this
may
explain
Gannett’s
refusal
to
publicly
commit
to
funding
Selzer’s
legal
defense.
“To
remove
this
to
federal
court,
Gannett
relies
on
a
doctrine
which
requires
that
Selzer
hasn’t
been
served
yet,”
Jaffe
noted.
“Lawyers
usually
accept
service
on
behalf
of
their
client.
If
they
accepted
on
behalf
of
Selzer,
they
couldn’t
invoke
this
rule.”
And
so,
the
Polk
County
clerk
duly
closed
the
case
one
day
after
opening
it.
Trump’s
trollsuit
has
now
been
assigned
to
Judge
Rebecca
Ebinger
of
the
Southern
District
of
Iowa.
Before
Barack
Obama
elevated
Judge
Ebinger
to
the
federal
bench,
she
served
as
a
state
judge
in
Iowa,
so
she’ll
be
well
placed
to
determine
whether
a
newspaper
article
is
“merchandise”
for
the
purpose
of
Iowa’s
consumer
fraud
statute.
Trump
v.
Selzer
[Docket
via
Court
Listener]
Liz
Dye lives
in
Baltimore
where
she
produces
the
Law
and
Chaos substack and podcast.