Ouch
Howard Nemerov writes:
“The Senators and Representatives shall … in all Cases, except Treason, Felony and Breach of the Peace, be privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other Place.” – US Constitution, Article 1, Section 6, Clause 1.
It’s Okay to Lie In Congress
The preceding excerpt from the Constitution is our origin of what is called legislative immunity. It means that if Dianne Feinstein prefers to lie while carrying out her job as Senator, we cannot hold her liable. Furthermore, if her dishonest comments are quoted by the New York Times, it is given an aura of authority. If other newspapers use quotes from the NYT, often called the paper of record, in their own articles, pretty soon it becomes gospel truth, because you can read it just about anywhere.
June 14th, 2004 at 10:11 am
Lying isn’t generally illegal anyway. Legislative immunity comes into play if DiFi defames somebody, of course, but most of her lies are about guns, not people. Guns can’t sue for defamation no matter who defames them, or when.
I don’t know how legislative immunity affects the press. Presumably, if a Legislator said X, the press has a right to report that they said X, even if X was defamatory. They may get into trouble, though, if they do it in a manner that comes off as though they were asserting X themselves.