| As campaigns try to sway voters before the November election, they'll face few, if any, legal consequences for stretching the truth or telling outright lies, experts tell Axios. Why it matters: Voters are about to get inundated with political TV ads, mailers and texts, many of them making dubious claims. But a long history of court rulings protects politicians' ability to lie in most cases. What they're saying: The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the First Amendment must protect speech that is false or misleading "to avoid chilling legitimate political discourse," Victor Menaldo, a University of Washington political science professor, tells Axios. - Because political speech is "foundational" under the First Amendment, "lies are not only protected, but even more so for politicians," he writes in an email.
Flashback: Several attempts to legislate against lying by politicians have been struck down by the courts. - In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court struck down the Stolen Valor Act of 2005, a federal law that criminalized lying about receiving military honors.
- Other courts have struck down efforts to regulate false political speech, including in Minnesota.
Yes, but: Under a relatively new state law, it is illegal to push AI-generated "deepfakes" meant to hurt a candidate or influence a race within 90 days of Election Day. - The law was one of the first in the nation to address growing concerns about the use of manipulated video, images and audio in campaigns.
Catch up fast: Courts have generally argued the antidote to false political statements should be "more speech" or "counterspeech" — essentially, relying on political opponents, the press or voters themselves to identify and call out campaign lies. Between the lines: "We do have laws against defamation, but usually the burden is very, very high when it comes to public figures," Travis Ridout, a political science professor at Washington State University, tells Axios. - That provides lots of leeway for politicians to make exaggerated or misleading campaign claims.
The bottom line: Voters "should always be skeptical and never take what politicians say at face value," Menaldo writes. - "Politicians are not in the truth business, but in the power business," he says — and "quite often the truth is collateral damage."
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