U.S. Supreme Court,
Constitutional Law
May 1, 2014
A state-sponsored 'ministry of truth'
The U.S. high court recently heard oral arguments about an Ohio law that penalizes false statements about candidates.
Charles S. Doskow
Dean Emeritus and Professor of Law
University of La Verne College of Law
Email: dosklaw@aol.com
Harvard Law School
Charles is a past president of the Inland Empire Chapter of the Federal Bar Association, and in 2012 was awarded the chapter's Erwin Chemerinsky Defender of the Constitution award.
Ohio, like several other states, has a statute that penalizes false statements about a candidate during an election campaign, and has established a state agency to hear and adjudicate complaints of violation of the law. That law became the subject of litigation ultimately appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. Susan B. Anthony List v. Driehaus, No. 13-193. The case was argued April 22 amid great anticipation that fundamental First Amendment issues involving campaign speech might be dec...
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