Should a Politician Have the Right to Lie?

The Supreme Court made it unconstitutional to pass a law saying that politicians cannot lie about their opponents. In Adam Luptik’s article, “Law on Lies by Politicians Found Unconstitutional”, he emphasizes how politicians now have the authority to use lying in their benefit. Many states have laws which make it unlawful to say false things about their opponents. However, in a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court ruled that this law is unconstitutional. The justices in favor of the new law stated that it should not be up to the government, but instead the people should have a right to exercise their freedom of speech. However, the justices against the argument felt as though “the majority’s decision is an invitation to lie with impunity.” The case aroused in 2002 when Marilou Rickert lied about her opponent Tim Sheldon. Mr. Sheldon was still re-elected and decided to sue Rickert for violating a state law that made it unlawful to publish a false statement about your opponent with reckless disregard to its truth or falsity. The commission ruled against Ms. Rickert and fined her $1,000. Now the Supreme Court is saying this is “a censorship scheme” and that the government should not be able to assume fact and opinion in political speech. They believe he could have responded in better ways and turned the tables around to make it in his favor. The other justices felt that that the First Amendment said nothing about false campaign statements and the malice standard is necessary to regulate false campaign speech. I believe if we allow our political candidates to lie to the American public in order to get ahead we then do not really know the type of people we were electing. The honest and right candidate may not be able to win whereas the ones which can come up with the most deceitful lie will take the lead. It should not be legal for the people leading our government to be able to lie and cheat to get ahead.