[From article]
The Supreme Judicial Court unanimously struck down a nearly 70-year-old state law that made it a crime to publish false statements about a political candidate, holding that the statute violated the First Amendment.
The case stemmed from a campaign battle between Second Barnstable State Rep. Brian Mannal and the Jobs First IE PAC, which distributed fliers before last year’s election claiming in part: “Brian Mannal chose convicted felons over the safety of our families.” The claim was based on legislation Mannal sponsored to require that sex offenders be notified of their right to a public defender. Mannal took the fight to court, seeking criminal charges against the PAC’s treasurer under the law.
Though the state asked the court to dismiss the charges against the PAC official but uphold the statute, the court ruled that the Constitution prevented that outcome because the law banned too broad a category of speech.
[. . .]
the court has consistently protected unsavory speech against laws that could have too broad of a chilling effect on Americans’ free speech rights.
That outcome wasn’t unexpected. Both liberal and conservative groups, as well a host of media companies, urged the court to come to the decision that it did. Boston First Amendment attorney Harvey A. Silverglate said the court understood that in politics, the solution to bad information is more information — not a jail sentence.
“If one person happens to have a larger megaphone than someone else, that’s not disruption, that’s politics,” Silverglate said.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/kimberly_atkins/2015/08/sjc_voids_law_criminalizing_lying_about_office
SJC voids law criminalizing lying about
office-seekers
Friday, August 7, 2015
By: Kimberly Atkins
Boston Herald
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