"Supreme Court To Consider Ohio Ban On Campaign Lies"

Supreme Court To Consider Ohio Ban On Campaign Lies

by HOPE YEN and SAM HANANEL at the Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/16/supreme-court-campaign-lies_n_5158964.html?utm_hp_ref=politics

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WASHINGTON (AP) — As political campaigns begin to heat up, the Supreme Court is deciding whether false accusations and mudslinging made during an election can be punished as a crime.

Addressing an issue of negative campaigning that now may be a fact of life in American politics, justices will consider a challenge to an Ohio law that bars false statements about political candidates. The case being heard next week has attracted national attention, with least 15 other states having similar laws.

Groups across the political spectrum are criticizing the law as a restriction on the First Amendment right to free speech.

Even Ohio's attorney general, Republican Mike DeWine, says he has serious concerns about the law. His office filed two briefs in the case, one from staff lawyers obligated to defend the state and another expressing DeWine's personal view that the law "may chill constitutionally protected political speech."



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