Whoppers and fibs

This just in from Washington state: Supreme Court rules candidates for public office are allowed to lie!

Thank goodness, we’re inclined to say. Take the lies out of a campaign and what’s left?

Before jumping to praise this week’s ruling out of Washington, however, it’s worth noting that it came on a 5-4 vote. That means that four justices of a supreme court of a presumably clear-headed state concluded that the 1st Amendment somehow allows legislators to outlaw lies in campaigns. The 1st Amendment, remember, expressly holds that Congress -- and, by extension of the 14th Amendment, state legislatures -- may pass “no law” restricting speech. If those words mean anything, they certainly mean that the government may not curtail raucous political speech; it is debate, after all, that supplies voters with the full range of ideas, good and bad.

Washington state legislators, who presumably didn’t appreciate being lied about, decided that the 1st Amendment wasn’t really meant for them. They made it illegal for a candidate to sponsor a knowingly false statement about an opponent if that lie was told with malice. State Sen. Tim Sheldon then made use of that law to punish his opponent, one Marilou Rickert, when she distributed a flier that falsely accused him of voting to close a facility for the developmentally challenged. (It was a juvenile detention center, and he voted to keep it open.) The state ruled in his favor and fined Rickert.

Meanwhile, Sheldon and Rickert were evaluated at the polls. Sheldon objected to Rickert’s statement and called her on it. Voters, who tend not to like liars, handily reelected Sheldon.

The dissenters on the Washington court want government -- specifically, courts -- to protect voters and candidates from lies. And it is indeed strange that one may not lie about toothpaste or dishwasher soap in an advertising campaign yet be free to spout falsehoods in a political campaign. But Sheldon’s victory demonstrates that voters and candidates already are protected from political lies -- not by limiting speech but by allowing it. Thankfully, the Washington court’s majority recognized that we don’t need the government’s help to sort out the truth in politics.