Like a teacher telling a student to redo his homework, a federal court told Donald Trump’s lawyers to file a less ridiculous case against the New York Times.
About a week ago, for reasons that were not altogether clear, Donald Trump threatened to sue The New York Times. As it turns out, he wasn’t kidding: Earlier this week, the president and his lawyers filed a $15 billion civil suit (that’s not a typo) against the newspaper, claiming the Times had defamed him and tried to ruin his reputation.
Four days later, a federal judge rejected the case — but not on the merits. Reuters reported:
A federal judge on Friday struck Donald Trump’s $15 billion defamation lawsuit against the New York Times. U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday said Trump violated a federal procedural rule requiring a short and plain statement of why he deserves relief, and that a complaint is not ‘a public forum for vituperation and invective’ or ‘a protected platform to rage against an adversary.’
Merryday gave Trump 28 days to file an amended complaint.
In other words, the federal judge didn’t conclude that the case was meritless, at least not yet. Rather, he concluded that the actual court filing was, for all intents and purposes, unserious nonsense. Like a teacher telling a student to redo his homework, Merryday effectively told Trump’s lawyers that if they want their case to be seriously considered, they’ll have to file a less silly document.
