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Justices Question Constitutionality of Ohio’s Ban on Campaign Lies
posted on April 23, 2014Jack Torry of The Columbus Dispatch reports that, during oral arguments, the majority of Supreme Court justices expressed doubt about Ohio’s law banning false statements in election campaigns, which would hand a major victory to anti-abortion activists. The dispute started in 2010, when the Ohio Elections Commission denied a billboard advertisement stating that a candidate supported the use of taxpayer dollars to pay for abortions by backing the Affordable Care Act. Justice Stephen G. Breyer asked, “Why can’t a person say … there are things I want to say politically and the Constitution says that the state does not have the right to abridge my speech?”