Get ready for another Scopes monkey trial. It’s been predicted that the Dominion v. Lindell case is going to be a libel landmark case and so far it’s stacking up that way. Alan Dershowitz is on board, giving informal counsel, he says and storied First Amendment lawyer Nathan Lewin is attorney of record. They intend to argue that Mike Lindell has a constitutional right to lie about Dominion Voting Systems, because they’ve got a novel legal theory that lying about Dominion is somehow akin to criticizing the U.S. government and is therefore subject to the same First Amendment protections. Whether this case changes the law is debatable but whether it will be entertaining to watch is not. Daily Beast:
“Our position is that Dominion is the government, for purposes of the First Amendment,” he [Dershowitz] said. “The government delegated to them the most important governmental function, mainly counting votes in a presidential election. And they are therefore subject to criticism in the exact same ways that the government would be subject to criticism in that situation. And criticism of how the government conducted a presidential election is the highest bar protecting the First Amendment right to criticize such action.” […]
Lindell’s legal strategy also marks a contrast with his fellow Dominion critic Sidney Powell, who also is facing a $1.3 billion suit from the voting technology company. Powell’s legal team has largely drawn attorneys from within the ranks of those who sought to overturn the election in court.
Powell is represented by Howard Kleinhendler, a Republican attorney who, alongside Lin Wood, filed some of the so-called “Kraken” cases bearing many of the same allegations that landed Powell in Dominion’s crosshairs. She’s also represented by Lawrence Joseph, a Trump campaign attorney who helped draft the Supreme Court brief that Texas filed in a failed bid to overturn Joe Biden’s electoral victory in a handful of battleground states. […]
Lewin, 85, has a storied legal career that spans decades and included a dozen appearances arguing cases before the Supreme Court and in Bobby Kennedy’s Justice Department prosecuting Jimmy Hoffa. After leaving government work, Lewin went on to represent a host of notable clients, including Jodie Foster after John Hinckley’s attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan, former Attorney General Edwin Meese during the Iran-Contra scandal, President Richard Nixon, and John Lennon in an appeal of his immigration status after the Nixon administration tried to have him deported from the U.S.
In an email to The Daily Beast on Sunday afternoon, Lewin declined to comment, writing that he would “have nothing to say beyond what I may file in court.”
It’s not going to be a dull summer and fall, with this cooking. For its part, Dominion has expanded its legal armada because it’s not only going after Lindell and Powell, it’s taking on Fox News.
Other conservative media outlets including Newsmax and One American News Network—also aired post election conspiracy theories and are among the top targets for Dominion’s next round of lawsuits, according to two people familiar with the matter. […]
People familiar with the matter say that the company’s legal team still hadn’t ruled out going after ex-President Trump specifically, but that no final decision had been made yet on if they wanted to open up that can of worms on the former leader of the free world. During his time in office, Trump personally promoted the same kinds of conspiracy theories and lies that the voting-tech executives and their attorneys now claim substantially and groundlessly damaged their business and has put them in danger via numerous death threats.
And all this was started by a former reality TV actor and a former crack head pillow manufacturer. Life is strange.
It will be equally strange if Lindell gets to argue that Dominion is some sort of quasi arm of the government and if Powell is stuck with her argument of “Only an idiot would think my bs statements were true.” Or vice versa. I think saying Dominion is an arm of the government could open up a whole can of worms for companies that contract with the government. It will be strange however it comes out.
I agree — and I think that’s why this newfangled First Amendment theory will eventually be rejected by the courts: it would cause too much trouble for corporations, and today’s courts are very obliging to corporations. It does, though, give Lindell a chance to drag the ultimate resolution of the case out for years and years. And even if the courts accept the theory, the case could still continue using the “actual malice” standard for libeling public officials.
It don’t work that way. Dersh should know that, and he should explain it to his clients.
It seems to have escaped his notice that Dominion wasn’t ’employed’ by the government but by some States (and not all of them).
I’m still waiting for his panic crowd-funding defence fund when he eventually realises that he is going to be hit and hit hard in his over-active mouth (well, when he manages to disengage it from the Trompador’s boot)