A suit filed in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado is seeking class action proceedings against Dominion Voting Systems. The arguments are laughable, and represent an attempt by Dershowitz to ultimately deny Dominion their right to seek relief for slander, by improperly accusing the firm of using “lawfare tactics” to silence conservatives.

“This lawsuit is not about who is right or wrong regarding the merits of the election or claims of fraud or mistake.” Dershowitz claims. “It is about whether these issues are worthy of debate under the First Amendment, and whether a corporation that has participated in the election as a state-actor has the power to chill such debate by employing intimidating “Lawfare” tactics.”

Actually, Dominion filed lawsuits only after the company was slandered on multiple media outlets as part of a widespread conspiracy to try to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Defendants acted with callous disregard for the truth of their statements, and if you make false claims about an individual or corporation while promoting a baseless conspiracy theory, you can be sued. That’s not “chilling public debate”, it’s just forcing people to suffer the consequences of their actions. Also, don’t forget that conservatives are the same ones who cheered for Devin Nunes’s numerous nuisance suits against companies like CNN, so ultimately what Dershowitz is doing is trying to claim a special protected status for right-wing conspiracy theorists, claiming that it should be legally actionable when news firms report on the finances and membership of various right-wing groups, but that those same right-wing groups can go ahead and promote whatever nonsense internet trolls are able to come up with, and do so without penalty.

Dersh then attempts a false equivalency by claiming that right-wing conspiracy theories about Dominion are the equivalent of liberals who were concerned about financial ties between various voting machine companies and elected GOP officials. The problem with this claim is that, once again, the claims made by Democrats regarding the investments by Mitt Romney and other GOP leaders were not slanderous. Making an honest effort to point out potential vulnerabilities in a system is not the same as making unfounded and widespread accusations of fraud.

Dersh then accuses Dominion of “intimidation tactics” by citing a letter sent to one of the plaintiffs requesting the preservation of all documentation and communications regarding public statements made about Dominion Voting systems. That’s a stock letter that any defendant in a slander or libel case will receive from opposing counsel. Dersh’s attempt to claim a simple legal communication is an intimidation tactic is laughable, and deserves to be tossed out of court.

The arguments continue on for 47 pages and the entire case is just an endless string of nonsense. Not only should Dominion immediately move to have Dershowitz’s case dismissed, but they should also ask the court to have Dershowitz sanctioned under sub-sections (b)(1) and (b)(2) of Rule 11 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.