In Ohio, a Law Bans Lying in Elections. Justices and Jesters Alike Get a Say

[Scuba]

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/25/us/politics/humor-and-other-rarities-emerge-in-a-case-about-lying.html

The Ohio law makes it a crime to make knowingly or recklessly false statements about political candidates that are intended to help elect or defeat them. Complaints, which can be filed by anyone, are heard by the Ohio Elections Commission, which makes preliminary determinations and can recommend criminal prosecution. The first offense could lead to six months’ imprisonment, the second to disenfranchisement.

The law applies to everyone. It covers, Mr. DeWine said, “the Internet and blogs and Facebook and citizens exercising their First Amendment rights in the town square.”

...

“In practice,” that brief said, “Ohio’s false statements law allows the state’s legal machinery to be used extensively by private actors to gain political advantage.”

..

The case, Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus, No. 13-193, will be argued next month. It was brought by an anti-abortion group that had sought to put up a billboard attacking Steven Driehaus, a Democrat, in the midst of what turned out to be his unsuccessful 2010 run for re-election to the House of Representatives.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. Holy hell, that's a reckless law.

It covers 'the Internet and blogs and Facebook'.. and includes 'recklessly false statements'?

So if you're on a blog, and you repeat something bad someone said about a candidate that is false, you're suddenly open to six months imprisonment, because you were 'reckless' enough to repeat something without verifying it first?

I can see 'making knowingly false statements'. If you KNOW you're libeling (or slandering) someone in an attempt to get them defeated, then sure, you should be liable to some extent. But it seems to me that 'knowingly or recklessly' is a recipe for completely shutting down political bloggers, who tend to be a 'reckless' bunch.

And you can bet the keyboard commandos on the right will start scouring leftwing blogs looking for 'gotchas' to try and get lefties thrown into jail.

Is the 'Ohio Elections Commission' nonpartisan or equally split, or is it packed with Republicans, like virtually every other office in the state? If so, I'd bet a lot more lefites wind up in jail than righties, too...

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

2. Btw, the law in question is available at

Ohio Revise Code, Section 3517.21 It looks like (10) is the part to which they're referring.

[DetlefK]

3. If you explicitly quote, is it still YOU making a statement?

"This website tells us that candidate X stinks."



"Some people say" "we have learned" that "according to recent developments"... MH370 was possibly on the way to Benghazi.

[Scuba]

4. IANAL, but you're not lying in the example you cite.