Banning Campaign Lies

With all of our budget problems in Washington, you'd think our duly elected legislators would be hard at work trying to balance the budget and get us out of the fiscal failure they created.  Au Contraire ,  mon Ami!  Our legislators are hard at work passing idiotic laws.

One of the more inane laws they passed - almost unanimously - was a law against politicians telling lies.  A similar law was deemed unconstitutional by the WA State Supreme Court in 2007, but it's been resurrected in a form that will supposedly pass constitutional muster.  

From the Seattle P-I:

OLYMPIA -- Political candidates in Washington would once again be banned from telling lies on the campaign trail under a proposed law approved Monday by the state House.

The bill, passed out of the House on a 92-2 vote, seeks to reinstate an old law that was thrown out on free speech grounds by the state Supreme Court in 2007. The court said the state's former ban on lying in campaigns violated the First Amendment because it did not require proof that campaign falsehoods were defamatory.

Rep. Mark Miloscia, D-Federal Way, said this year's attempt at reinstating the ban on campaign lies addresses the court's problems with the old law. Specifically, the bill approved Monday would prohibit false statements that are libelous or defamatory, and committed with actual malice - a key legal test in free speech case law.

The Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) is the state elections watchdog and they are the organization that requested this bill. 

We all want our politicians to tell us the truth.  What constitutes a lie is often open for interpretation.  If you accuse your opponent of being a liberal and she takes a little umbrage to that, can she make a libel case?  Probably not, but I'm certain someone will try and push the limits in a test case or two,  I'm also certain, if it is a borderline case, the tie will go to the Democrat.  It's how things work in this state.

Personally, I think it's unnecessary.  There are already laws concerning libel and defamation and they supposedly apply to all including politicians.  Let the voters decide.  As much as I want honesty from the people I vote for, this is bad law and I'm sad that all but one Republican in the house saw fit to vote for it.

VW