Miloscia bill to ban malicious political lies is signed into law

April 26, 2009

OLYMPIA—With a stroke of her pen yesterday, Gov. Chris Gregoire restored the ability of Washington's Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) to fine political candidates who tell malicious lies to get elected.

"If we're serious about restoring faith in the political process, we need to restore the principle that political candidates cannot lie with impunity," said state Rep. Mark Miloscia (D-Federal Way), who sponsored the measure at the request of the PDC.

Miloscia's measure outlaws false, defamatory, and malicious statements in political electioneering when the false statement is about a candidate; or a person falsely represents that he or she is an incumbent; or a person falsely claims to be endorsed by a person or organization.

Washington's previous law against lying by political candidates was struck down by a sharply divided state Supreme Court in Rickert v. Public Disclosure Commission. The 5-4 decision in the Rickert case threw out a PDC. fine against a candidate who allegedly lied about an incumbent's voting record.

Four of the judges in the Rickert majority ruled broadly that attempts to regulate political speech-even lies-violate the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. But this reasoning alarmed the four justices in the minority, who called it "an invitation to lie with impunity" that "advances the efforts of those who would turn political campaigns into contests of the best stratagems of lies and deceit."

The deciding fifth vote was cast by Chief Justice Gerry Alexander. Alexander argued in a concurring opinion that defamatory political speech is not protected by the First Amendment, but he agreed that the state law involved in the Rickert case was unconstitutional because it also prohibited non-defamatory speech.

Miloscia said he is confident that the new law will pass constitutional muster, because it requires clear proof that an alleged political lie is defamatory before it can be ruled a violation of state campaign laws.

"This law is really about common sense and decency in politics," said Miloscia. "It says we don't have to choose between our freedoms and our democracy. It protects both by giving wide latitude to freedom of speech while prohibiting those lies that are so blatantly false and destructive that they undermine faith in our system of democratic elections."

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