Beware Criminalizing George Santos’s Lies

A Republican congressman-elect of New York, George Santos, is being caught in new lies every day, and his prospects for being seated in the House are dimming. A Democratic bill to criminalize these sorts of tall tales, though, would be an overreach, politicizing the justice system to win elections. A man who may be one of Mr. Santos’s Democratic colleagues in the House, Representative Ritchie Torres, plans to introduce the Stop Another Non-Truthful Office Seeker, or Santos, bill “to require candidates to disclose under oath their employment, educational, & military history so we can punish candidates who lie to voters about their qualifications.”Of course, our democracy already offers such a mechanism: the ballot box. If a campaign fails to search an opponent’s record and discovers that the candidate has lied about everything from education to religious background only after the votes are counted, must the courts give it another bite at the electoral apple?In the 1840 election, President William Henry Harrison ran as the “log cabin and hard cider” candidate, casting the incumbent, President Van Buren, as a pampered aristocrat during an economic depression. In truth, Van Buren had been raised over a saloon by a tavernkeeper on a Post Road, while Harrison’s father — a signer of the Declaration of Independence — wasn’t a hard-bitten Westerner, but a wealthy landowner who had raised his son on the Berkeley Plantation in Virginia. In politics, it’s said that “perception is reality,” and many candidates have suffered from false characterizations of their biographies or opponents who inflate theirs. Rare is the self-deprecation of a President Reagan, who described himself as “The Errol Flynn of the B-Movies.” The Santos Act would require candidates to swear to their biographies under oath, leaving them open to the crime for which President Clinton was impeached. Whoever takes these depositions will be motivated to set a similar process crime trap. The Founders saw the potential for such shenanigans, which is why it’s almost certain the proposed law would be found unconstitutional based on the First Amendment and 1995’s decision in U.S. Term Limits, Inc. v. Thornton.In that case, the Supreme Court ruled that no requirements can be placed on candidates for Congress beyond those listed in the Constitution: Representatives must be at least 25, seven years a citizen, and a resident of their state. However, what if the Santos Act stood? What if some backbench House Republican introduces a Stop Big Inane Democrat Endless Nonsense, or Stop Biden, bill? If a fabulist in Congress is a danger, then having one as a sitting president must be fatal, and the tit for tat begins. The work of the country would grind to a halt. Republicans would prosecute the Democratic senator of Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren, for claiming Native American ancestry.Would there be a special prosecutor for Vice President Harris, who — taking her at her word — misremembered details of her childhood such as celebrating Kwanzaa and getting high in college while listening to rappers who had not yet emerged.As I wrote in a previous column, the untruths of Mr. Biden and fellow Democrats like Senator Blumenthal of Connecticut, who lied about serving in Vietnam, “will make for good talk radio and Fox News Channel counter snark, but the difference with Mr. Santos is none of those men risked legal jeopardy with their lies.”Mr. Torres had this same insight, tweeting a plea to focus on allegations that Mr. Santos violated campaign finance law to the tune of $700,000. “The background noise surrounding George Santos must not distract from the central issue,” he tweeted. “Where did all the money come from?”Keeping Mr. Santos’s sad, comical lies before the American people and using them to give Republicans headaches — not to mention trying their luck in the special election that would result if they can prevent him from taking his seat — is good politics for Democrats. It’s bad law, though, to criminalize lies, misstatements, and even honest mistakes — muddying up our elections in the name of clean government. The Santos affair has already put candidates on notice to stick to the facts, and spend a little time researching an opponent whose log cabin origin story sounds a little too good to be true.

Beware Criminalizing George Santos’s Lies

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