State o' CA attack on satirical Free Speech goes down
A recent California law that targeted satirical “misinformation” around the election has recently been struck down as being unconstitutional. This bill would have resulted in any satirical messaging deemed deceptive (relating to the election) being banned. The court found that this was an infringement on the First Amendment. Nat'l Review reports.
California’s law was so broad it barred any deceptive communications likely to hurt a candidate’s reputation or electoral chances. Lawmakers should have known this could be interpreted to criminalize a great deal of political speech that relies on effective overstatement, hyperbole, and comical inference. Lawmakers may try to rewrite the law to meet the “least restrictive” tests that content-based speech laws require under our constitution. We hope they give up the project altogether.
The very fact that Kohls was being harassed under the law demonstrates just one fatal problem with it. Under such a legal regime, there would almost by necessity be unequal enforcement. Famous and politically favored entertainers like Stephen Colbert would be immune to such prosecution, but citizen creators who are disfavored by the government, sharing their work across social media, would be hounded. The Babylon Bee, the well-known Evangelical-led satire site, is filing a similar lawsuit against California’s laws next week. We hope it prevails swiftly.
What may be bothering California’s lawmakers is that the means for making and distributing forms of political propaganda are being democratized. Average citizens, rather than just media behemoths, can now make their influence felt, amplified by social-media companies such as X that remain outside the progressive blob’s direct control and facilitate their material going viral.
As the election approaches, we expect to hear more low and treacherous excuses for why American citizens shouldn’t enjoy their First Amendment rights (Tim Walz retailed some during the VP debate). But we trust that the public and the judiciary won’t fall for it.
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