Government lawyers’ lies and stonewalling endanger press freedom

Government lawyers during President Donald Trump’s second term have outright lied to federal judges and refused to comply with court orders in numerous cases involving journalists and the First Amendment. That’s according to a newly updated report from nonpartisan law and policy journal Just Security. Since last year, the journal has been evaluating the state of the “presumption of regularity” — a legal doctrine under which judges assume that the executive branch of the U.S. government is following appropriate procedures and being honest about the reasons for its actions. That presumption was probably never warranted — after all, many of the dishonest lawyers serving in the Trump administration aren’t newcomers to the federal government. Some have been around for decades. But Just Securit…