With reference to the letter captioned “Where are the adults?,” which appeared on Dec 10, I would like to suggest that the readers get the facts and check everything they read, hear or see to have “more knowledge about what is going on” in the way our government works and what is permissible under constitutional law.

The intention of sharing this information is to empower each person to know what to do or not based on facts and not what the media presents.

Constitutional law – freedom of speech – political speech – political advertising – false statements of fact – government proscription – validity.

The First Amendment prohibits the government from proscribing false statements of fact in political advertising. Under the First Amendment, the government may not silence speech it does not approve of. The First Amendment precludes punishment for generalized public frauds, deceptions and defamation.

In political campaigns, the grossest misstatements, deceptions and defamations are immune from legal sanction except insofar as private individuals have been defamed.

Farida Hakim, Bellevue