Matt Nese, CCP’s Director of External Relations, in comments to Montana’s Senate Judiciary Committee on H.B. 129, warned that the proposal “would set a dangerous precedent allowing the government itself to define the truth or falsity of campaign speech.” The legislation seeks to amend the state’s law that regulates the truth of campaign speech after it was found unconstitutionally vague in a 2012 court case.
Montana’s statute regulating the truth of campaign speech is unnecessary, as state law has an existing anti-defamation provision that can be used to provide a civil remedy for any damaging false speech that H.B. 129 seeks to prohibit.
A copy of the comments can be found here.
