#first-amendment-and-corporate-speech-rights

#first-amendment-and-corporate-speech-rights

Trump Media and Technology Group, the parent company of Truth Social, has dropped its defamation claim against the Guardian and two other defendants regarding a report on federal investigations into $8 million in payments.

The lawsuit by the New York Times alleged that policy changes by the defense department last year gave it free rein to freeze out reporters and news outlets over coverage the department did not like, in violation of the constitution's protections for free speech and due process.

The court says Trump is entitled to this power under the "Unitary Executive Theory," a fringe theory that was made up by Republican academics to justify dismantling the regulatory state and that has been adopted by Supreme Court Republicans over the past few years. The theory reimagines every independent agency created by Congress as part of Trump's personal fiefdom. Based on this view, the Supreme Court has allowed Trump to fire members of the National Labor Relations Board (see Trump v. Wilcox);