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Is There A Right To Lie In Politics?

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Do political groups have a right to lie in ads for candidates? A case could now proceed to the Supreme Court, to make that ruling.

The Susan B. Anthony List accused an incumbent candidate of supporting taxpayer-funded abortions because he voted for Obamacare. The ad was based on the logic that the President’s healthcare law provided for the procedures. The anti-abortion group designed a billboard ad, specifically accusing Steve Driehaus of voting for government-paid abortions.

The Supreme Court recently ruled the pro-life group, along with another plaintiff, may sue the state to overturn the campaign law.

Driehaus is a 47-year-old pro-life Democrat elected to Congress in 2008. After the ads were designed, he threatened a lawsuit, and the billboard owner refused the placement.

The group filed a preemptive lawsuit against the state. The Representative lost his re-election bid in 2010, but the lawsuit, initiated by the anti-abortion group, continued. Lower courts ruled the SBAL suit could not continue, without eminent threat of injury. This latest decision re-opens the door to overturning the Ohio law.

The former congressman said, “The First Amendment is not and never has been an invitation to concoct falsehoods aimed at depriving a person of his livelihood.” (1)

If political ads need to be “fact-checked” before they are aired, this would provide great power to those in charge of approval. Some commentators on social media are fearful of a “Ministry of Truth,” similar to that in the novel 1984.

A Friend of the Court brief authored by the CATO Institute was co-written by humorist P.J. O’Rourke. It spoke out against approval of ads, with a tongue-in-cheek attitude.

It read, “There is no lie that can be told about a politician that will not be more damaging to the liar once the truth is revealed. A crushing send-up on The Daily Show or The Colbert Report will do more to clean up political rhetoric than the Ohio Election Commission ever could.”



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    • aznavyvet

      I thought we already had a truth police called the thought police of liberal press against any conservative would would dare call out the political correctness of today press

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