Friday, April 25, 2014

Right to Publish Lies

Ohio has a law that criminalizes false statements about candidates in the days before elections. More than a dozen other states have similar laws. The Ohio law has been brought to the Supreme Court for decision on constitutionality. According to the Washington Times, the Supreme Court justices Tuesday appeared skeptical about the constitutionality of the Ohio law,
If I may be so bold as to help the Supreme Court justices, the Ohio law and others like it are unconstitutional.
The First Amendment to the Constitution says, "Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press". The 10th amendment to the Constitution says, " The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.". Since the Constitution addresses the matter of free speech, it is not reserved to the states.
It should also be noticed that the Constitution allows any form of speech. It does not restrict the speech only to facts or so-called truths. Since speech many times involves opinions, conjectures, misinterpretations or even intentional lies, the founding fathers wisely put in no such restrictions. Anything goes.
Any political candidate unfairly accused has recourse to his own defense or a counter offense. If a known unfair accusation has done damage to the accused, he has the right to pursue restitution in civil court.
Ohio's law limiting political speech only to so-called "truths" is unconstitutional and should be eliminated.

No comments:

Post a Comment