Iowa judge dismisses Trump lawsuit against Des Moines Register over poll

A judge in Iowa has thrown out Donald Trump's lawsuit against the Des Moines Register newspaper and pollster J. Ann Selzer.

Trump had claimed that a pre-election poll published by the newspaper was misleading. He argued this broke consumer fraud law. Judge Scott J. Beattie disagreed. He ruled that the poll and its coverage were protected political speech under the US Constitution.

The judge also said that letting the case continue would push Iowa law too far beyond its current limits. He warned that it could stop journalists from reporting freely on public matters in the future.