On August 9, two Ohio advocacy groups asked the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn an Ohio law that makes it a crime for anyone to knowingly or recklessly make a “false” statement about a candidate or a ballot measure. Here is the cert petition. The case is Susan B. Anthony List and Coalition Opposed to Additional Spending and Taxes v Driehaus, 13-193.
The lower courts had refused to make a decision about the constitutionality of the law. Ever since the law has existed, there have been many lawsuits in both federal and state courts to overturn this law, but the courts invariably find procedural reasons to abstain from deciding whether the law violates the First Amendment.
See *seditious libel* in the OLDE court cases – saying ANY thing critical of the OLDE evil rotted Brit regime, true OR false, could get you in BIG trouble.
Thus — in the New Age — is it quite OK to say/write that my opponent is —
a child of the Devil ???
a traitor and spy for various foreign regimes ???
a terrorist making bombs every day ???
a mass serial killer killing folks every day using those bombs ???
a child molestor ???
a cat and dog beater ???
See Blackstone’s Commentaries, Book I, Chap. I —
Once upon a time folks had a *reputation* — part of their *life* — as in life, liberty and property.
See the zillion Brit court cases regarding slander (*words* in the court cases) and libel.
i.e. a rather total obvious difference between saying / writing whatever without prior censorship and the CONSEQUENCES of such saying / writing ??? Duh.
— such as — writing a copy of the USA top secret WAR plans with related codes and giving it to ANY foreign regime.
standard court example – yelling *FIRE* in a crowded movie house when there is no fire.
See the now infamous 1964 N.Y. Times case by the SCOTUS MORONS going nuts in the 1960s.
Result – the nonstop slanders and libels by all the usual suspects 24/7.
I live in the Cincinnati media market. Dreihaus lost his US Congressional seat in 2010 after voting for Obamacare in 2009.
Susan B Anthony List is a pro-life organization that advertised that by voting for Obamacare, Dreihaus voted for funding of abortion. Given that abortion coverage is required in all medical plans, courtesy of Obamacare, that is a true, if somewhat confusing, statement.
I don’t know what the guys at COAST are on the hook for.