It was a case of crime and punishment in the digital age when Cincinnati-based mechanical engineer Mark Miller took to Twitter with a series of politically heated missives about a local municipal project. Upset that the city of Cincinnati, Ohio would be spending money on a new streetcar, Miller sent tweet after tweet about how those efforts were browning out large percentages of fire departments in the city limits. Miller’s tweets didn’t just incite local debate, they got Miller slapped with a lawsuit, because under an Ohio law, it’s illegal to make false statements in political campaigns. There are 17 states with similar laws — but do those laws still reflect the reality we are living in? Miller was just one man, expressing his concerns to his several hundred twitter followers, not a campaign. To discuss the brave new world of first amendment laws we speak with Mark Miller himself along with Larissa Lydski, professor of Law at University of Florida.
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