Campaign Speech
In our democracy, candidates are free to make very strong statements criticizing their opponents or the government. The government itself should not be in the business of vetting the truth or falsity of political speech. Recognizing this, the Washington Supreme Court has twice overturned laws that empowered the government to impose punishment for statements made during campaigns.
The ACLU-WA opposed both those measures and believes this year’s effort to regulate speech will chill freedom of expression and cause candidates to censor themselves. The bill prohibits false political ads or electioneering communications that arise to the level of libel or defamation. It gives the state Public Disclosure Commission the ability to impose fines.
In 2007, in an ACLU-WA case, the state supreme court found the previous candidate speech law violated the right to free speech and failed to accomplish its aim of ensuring the honesty of elections. “The notion that the government, rather than the people, may be the final arbiter of truth in political debate is fundamentally at odds with the First Amendment," wrote Justice Jim Johnson in the lead opinion for the court. In 1998 the state’s high court threw out an earlier version of the law when the government tried to penalize the 119 Vote No! Committee for statements against a Death with Dignity initiative.
