The American Bar Association (ABA) balked at publishing an article concluding that Donald Trump was a “libel bully” who filed libel lawsuits at will but never prevailed. The bar association citing its fear of being sued by Trump. The association’s deputy director said it was necessary to remove inflammatory language from the article not essential to the article’s thesis. (The New York Times, October 24, 2016, by Adam Liptak)
First Amendment lawyer Susan E. Seager who wrote the report criticized the ABA for asking her to mitigate its harsh tone and withdrew it to submit to the Media Law Resource Center who published it uncensored last week. She said it is important to show how Trump’s frivolous law suits force news outlets to use precious funds to defend themselves and that the pointed wording “libel bully’ was needed to drive home the point that Trump poses a threat to a free press and free speech. (Law Newz, October 25, 2016, by Susan E. Seager)
techdirt piled on calling the ABA “chickenshit” in their headline about the censorship. “The ABA’s refusal to publish the report is really ridiculous, but only serves to highlight the issue here. When an organization that absolutely must know better is still too afraid to publish a report like this, it highlights just how successful Trump can be in stifling speech with just his threats,” wrote Mike Masnick, techdirt, October 25, 2016.
The article reported that Trump filed a staggering 4,000 lawsuits over 30 years and plied critics and journalists with cease-and-desist letters, but when the smoke dissipated, Trump and his companies failed to win a single case. (The New York Daily News, October 25, 2016, by Adam Edelman)