And everywhere else in the United States.
"Ohio’s curbs on campaign speech voided" by Dan Sewell and Lisa Cornwell | Associated Press September 12, 2014
CINCINNATI — A federal judge on Friday struck down Ohio’s law barring people from knowingly or recklessly making false statements about candidates in a case the US Supreme Court said needed to be heard.
US District Judge Timothy Black ruled Ohio’s law unconstitutional and prohibited the Ohio Elections Commission from enforcing it.
The judge said the answer to false statements in politics is ‘‘not to force silence, but to encourage truthful speech in response, and to let the voters, not the government, decide what the political truth is.’’
‘‘Ohio’s false-statements laws do not accomplish this, and the court is not empowered to re-write the statutes; that is the job of the Legislature,’’ Black wrote.
In June, the Supreme Court unanimously said an antiabortion group should be able to challenge the law, in a case that grew out of a 2010 congressional race. The Susan B. Anthony List has contended the Ohio statute violates free speech.
It really grates on some feminists that the great suffragette hero was antiabortion.
The case began after then-US Representative Steve Driehaus filed a complaint when the group planned to post billboards claiming the Democrat’s support for President Obama’s health care overhaul equated with support for abortion, even though he opposed abortion. The billboard owner declined to post the ads.
Driehaus dropped his case after he lost his reelection bid.
‘‘After four years and a trip to the US Supreme Court, today we finally have a victory for free speech,’’ Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List, said Thursday.
The Ohio attorney general’s office had no comment.
Black had said earlier that the Susan B. Anthony List group did not have standing to sue because it did not suffer any harm, and an appeals court agreed. But the Supreme Court, without ruling on Ohio’s law, said the challenge should be considered because future statements are likely to bring a legal fight. The antiabortion group plans to criticize members of Congress if they voted for the health care legislation, contending that backers support taxpayer-funded abortion.
The Susan B. Anthony List wants a court order so it can inform voters without fear of prosecution.
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