Timeline for Is it illegal for public figures to knowingly state a falsehood?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Dec 30, 2016 at 5:53 | vote | accept | Daniel | ||
| Nov 15, 2016 at 22:33 | comment | added | ohwilleke | @Pat W. Fair point, although not very relevant to the larger issue. | |
| Nov 15, 2016 at 20:50 | comment | added | Pat W.♦ | Also, although probably beside your point, Congress passed a new version of the Stolen Valor Act in 2013 after the Alvarez case. | |
| Nov 15, 2016 at 20:40 | comment | added | ohwilleke | REDOThe stolen valor case is U.S. v. Alvarez 132 S.Ct. 2537 (2012); a law review note (i.e. student written article) on it explores the issue. minnesotalawreview.org/articles/… Brown v. Hartlage, 456 U.S. 45 (1982) applied the NYT actual malice standard to political speech. Alvarez broadened that exception even to cases of actual malice. Accord Citizens United v. FEC, 130 S. Ct. 876, 898–99 (2010) (“[P]olitical speech must prevail against laws that would suppress it, whether by design or inadvertence.”). | |
| Nov 15, 2016 at 6:12 | comment | added | ohwilleke | Many state laws on the books prohibit this kind of speech, but those laws are probably unconstitutional. | |
| Nov 15, 2016 at 6:11 | comment | added | ohwilleke | The Defense of Valor Act, which made it a crime to misrepresent having received military honors or rank, was held unconstitutional despite the fact that it criminalized a knowing false statement of fact. While false statements can be punished in some circumstances, in political contexts this is generally not the case (so that judges aren't put in the deciding the truth of a controversial question). There must be a particularized harm to the victim of the falsehood for it to be actionable (arguably really a strict reading of standing law informed by constitutional avoidance). | |
| Nov 14, 2016 at 19:50 | history | edited | Pat W.♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Nov 14, 2016 at 16:44 | history | edited | Pat W.♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Nov 14, 2016 at 16:38 | history | answered | Pat W.♦ | CC BY-SA 3.0 |