A Right to a Lie?

Does the First Amendment protect verifiable falsehoods?

Drawing from court cases about defamers, proponents of birtherism, braggarts, and dissembling politicians, leading First Amendment expert and professor at the George Washington University Law School Catherine J. Ross addresses these questions in her forthcoming book, A Right to Lie? Presidents, Other Liars, and the First Amendment. The general answer, as Ross shows, is “yes.”