Re:New "Prosecuting Burning of the American Flag" EO Would V...
by perihelions on Tuesday August 26, 2025 @09:51AM
(#45026565)
Most US states don't have criminal defamation laws ("...more than a dozen states still maintain criminal libel laws"[1]). They're infrequently used, except[0,1] an abusive tactic by police; most experts seem to think they're unconstitutional, but they haven't (yet) been invalidated on First Amendment grounds.
> "Throwing someone in jail for badmouthing a public official is profoundly undemocratic and un-American."
> "But that didn’t stop police from arresting Robert Frese after he insulted them on Facebook. According to the Exeter Police Department in New Hampshire, Frese violated the state’s criminal libel law when he referred to an officer as a “coward” who was “covering up for a dirty cop.” New Hampshire’s law makes it a misdemeanor to say or write anything that you know is false that will expose someone to “public hatred, contempt or ridicule”..."
[0] https://www.aclu.org/press-releases/u-s-supreme-court-declin... ("U.S. Supreme Court Declines to Hear First Amendment Challenge to Criminal Defamation Law" (2023))
[1] https://www.thefire.org/cases/frese-v-formella ("Frese v. Formella")
> "Throwing someone in jail for badmouthing a public official is profoundly undemocratic and un-American."
> "But that didn’t stop police from arresting Robert Frese after he insulted them on Facebook. According to the Exeter Police Department in New Hampshire, Frese violated the state’s criminal libel law when he referred to an officer as a “coward” who was “covering up for a dirty cop.” New Hampshire’s law makes it a misdemeanor to say or write anything that you know is false that will expose someone to “public hatred, contempt or ridicule”..."