Free Speech: Second law forbidding lies in political campaigns ruled unconstitutional

A federal district judge struck down an Ohio law criminalizing lies in political campaigns. “The answer to false statements in politics is not to force silence (by forbidding lies) but to encourage truthful speech in response, and to let the voters, not the Government, decide what the political truth is,” wrote Judge Timothy Black. The ruling was expected after a June ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court that allowed the case to proceed in challenging the law’s constitutionality. (Cincinnati.com, September 12, 2014, by Chrissie Thompson)

Judge Black had originally dismissed the challenge to the law but in his decision last week agreed that the groups objecting to the law were not  arguing for a right to lie. “We’re [Susan B. Anthony List and an anti-tax group] arguing that we have a right not to have the truth of our political statements be judged by the government,” Black noted in his ruling. The 8th Circuit Appeals Court struck down a similar law in Minnesota on September 4. (Courthouse News Service, September 15, 2014, by Jeff D. Gorman)