美国法对虚假选举言论的规制

A Research on False Campaign Speech Regulations of American Law

选举是实现民主政治的最重要的方式。选举过程中,选民根据自身所获取的各类相关资讯来判断候选人的政见、品德和施政能力等,据以投票给自己认为符合自身利益的候选人。参与选举的各方所发表的言论对于选民的投票决策具有相当的影响。因属于政治性言论的范畴,选举言论受到美国《联邦宪法第一修正案》的着力保护。然而选举活动中虚假选举言论广泛传播,对选民理性抉择产生了不利影响,甚至危及选举本身的合法性和公正性。因此有必要对选举言论采取适当的立法规制。目前美国联邦和各州层面的立法对虚假选举言论采取了直接或间接的规制措施。法院在审查各州立法时适用了越来越严格的标准,为平衡言论自由和选举公正之间的关系提供了重要参照。本文对美国虚假选举言论法律规制的现状进行了梳理,并介绍了法院自1988年以来所发展出的司法审查观点,对维护选举公正的措施进行了思考和探讨。

Election is the most important approach to the goal of democracy. Electorates make their decision after analyzin paign speech regarding to these g i the characters, opinions and ability of candidates. So cam ssues mean a lot to their choice. Though false campaign speech can distort rational decision of electors, the First Amendment guarantees a high-level protection as they are political speech. To relief the harm they may bring to the fairness of election, regulations have been enacted by both federal and state governments. In court judicial review, some state laws were announced unconstitutional. This article summarized A- merican laws concerning false campaign speech, introduced court opinion towards these laws during the past thirty years. At last, this article proposed several solutions to balance the freedom of speech and the regulations on false campaign speech.