California’s Governor Versus the First Amendment

Plus, Trump takes on the Republican Squad; University of Virginia

The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, as seen in a handout photo from his office.

Between Sarah Palin suing the New York Times and President Trump suing Bob Woodward, the Des Moines Register, ABC News, and CBS News, Republican politicians have been the ones in the news in recent years suing news organizations. Now Governor Newsom, Democrat of California, seems to have been inspired by the trend and is suing Fox News for $787 million in punitive damages over the network’s reporting on the timing of a phone call between Newsom and President Trump.

Set aside for now whether politicians routinely suing news organizations is a generally good trend or a bad one. What’s intriguing is that Newsom, in an action brought in Delaware Superior Court, is bringing not only a defamation case but an action under California’s Unfair Competition Law, which, Newsom’s suit says, prohibits any “unlawful, unfair or fraudulent business act or practice and unfair, deceptive, untrue or misleading advertising.”