‘Dirty tricks’ versus the 1st Amendment
Re “Election day -- at last,” Opinion, Nov. 4
Political scientist Larry Sabato rhetorically asks, “Shouldn’t we be laboring to construct a legislated code of ethics to end dirty tricks once and for all?” In a word, no.
There is, after all, that pesky 1st Amendment. One man’s dirty trick is another man’s right to speak, castigate, smear or condemn. That’s what it means to live in a free society. The first to agree with that proposition would have been that known “atheistic coward,” Thomas Jefferson, and his 1800 electoral opponent, the “hideous hermaphroditical character,” John Adams.
Al Meyerhoff
Studio City
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