Politicians have the right to lie.

The Washington State Supreme Court, in a 5-4 vote, found a Washington law that banned politicians from lying about their opponents unconstitutional, saying the law violates free-speech rights.

The dissenting justices said the decision was “an invitation to lie with impunity.”

More than a dozen states, including Iowa, have passed laws similar to Washington’s that prohibits publishing deliberately untrue statements about political candidates. The laws differ from libel laws, which require reputation damages and malice to be proven.

“We do have a problem about candidates lying or making misleading statements about opponents,” said James Hutter, associate professor of political science. “But public figures have their own weapons against lies and slander, because they can get their statements or defense covered by the press, whereas an ordinary citizen cannot.”

Hutter said he was surprised some states have a law that “flies in the face of the First Amendment.”

“Generally speaking, the punishment for making false statements is you’re caught by the public and is corrected by them,” he said.

Hutter said the smear ads and lies do have an effect on the politicians, however. He cited Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., saying hispresidential loss could be directly related to ads run by Swift Boat Veterans for Truth.

The ads criticized Kerry’s performance in military service, claiming he had made exaggerations about his time in the service and called him “unfit to serve” as president.

Hutter said because Kerry didn’t defend himself, people either believed the ads or saw him as “wimpy.”

Stephanie Lichter, ISU College Republicans president and junior in political science, said she sees the ban on lies as a good thing.

“Politicians should run ads on what they are going to change – the good they will do,” she said.

She also said she thought smear ads do have an effect on voters, but said she hopes people will find credible sources to fact-check and find the truth out for themselves.

Amanda Halfacre, ISU Democrats president and junior in women’s studies, said she thought smear ads affected voters as well, sometimes even discouraging voting altogether because sorting through the negative ads is a “frustrating process.”

Halfacre, however, does not agree with the bans on the smear ads.

“Candidates should take the initiative and not run smear ads. It’s a personal responsibility of the candidate,” she said.