Noah Feldman, Columnist

Trump’s CBS Lawsuit Is a Frivolous Election Stunt

He doesn't care about the harm he’s doing to free speech. He just wants a news cycle focused on Harris.

November 1, 2024 at 4:00 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

Suing again.
Photographer: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

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Donald Trump’s lawsuit against CBS is utterly meritless. On one level, it’s a last-ditch political stunt from a man who has already been involved in thousands of lawsuits. But it’s also genuinely dangerous. The suit flagrantly ignores the First Amendment — and invites a Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas to commit legal disobedience.

The former president’s suit accuses 60 Minutes of editing the answers given by Vice President Kamala Harris in an interview aired in October. The “basis” for the lawsuit is a Texas state law that authorizes consumers to sue for deceptive conduct by commercial enterprises — like false advertising.