An Incendiary Lead-In on the News Last Night

In the “a court rules it’s okay to LIE about another candidate in campaign literature” mode. Well, my guess that it had something to do with existing defamation laws turned out to be right, but of course THAT little tidbit was never mentioned. But DANG, WHAT you have to go through to get to the why of it all.

State law barring untrue campaign remarks tossed
Court rules it violates constitutional right of free speech
TACOMA — A law that bars political candidates from deliberately making false statements about their opponents violates the First Amendment right of free speech, an appeals panel has ruled…
…In a campaign flier, Rickert said the incumbent, Sen. Tim Sheldon, D-Potlatch, “voted to close a facility for the developmentally challenged.” Sheldon won re-election, then filed a complaint with the commission, asserting that he was the only legislator who voted to keep it open…
…An ACLU spokesman, Doug Honig, said the law was a wrongheaded attempt to give politicians greater protection from false statements than other citizens.
“We have defamation laws,” Honig said. “If somebody believes they are defamed, they can sue under that law. We don’t need a separate broader law to protect candidates.”

One Response to “An Incendiary Lead-In on the News Last Night”

1. -keith in mtn. view says:

   October 13, 2005 at 11:14 am

   How many more reasons do we need to despise the ACLU?