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The litigation brought by Stormy Daniels against Donald Trump has had its day of reckoning. The adult-film star who sued the president for defamation not only lost a portion of her lawsuit but was ordered to pay the president’s legal bills. All this was a resounding victory for the freedom of speech.
After the right to life, protected by the Fifth and 14th amendments, and the right to be left alone, protected by the Fourth, the freedom of speech, protected by the First, is our most cherished. James Madison, who drafted the Bill of Rights, was careful to refer to speech as “the” freedom of speech so as to underscore the Framers’ unambiguous belief that free speech is pre-political. Stated differently, it existed before the government did and thus did not come from the government. As it does not originate in the government, Madison and company believed it originates in our humanity.
Earlier this week, a federal judge in Los Angeles ruled that Daniels’ efforts to use the courts to punish the president for his exercising the freedom of speech were frivolous.
Here is the back story.
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Daniels claims that she and Trump had a consensual sexual encounter in a Lake Tahoe hotel room in 2006, shortly after Trump’s youngest son, Barron, was born. On CBS’ “60 Minutes” program, she told Anderson Cooper of the sexual experience in vivid and graphic detail. Trump has denied many times that he had a sexual encounter with Daniels.
Daniels also told Cooper that she had been with Trump in public after their encounter, and she produced a photo of them together in a public place. She then told…