Is there no federal defamation law that could apply here? I would've thought this would fall under something like that, rather than 1A. Even without 1A, you could still be defaming someone by misrepresenting that they hold a certain view, right? I know states have laws against this regardless of the constitution, but is there no such thing at the federal level?

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tantalor a day ago | parent [-]

Only individual people can be defamed, not political parties.

Plus what is being asserted is not really a factual statement so it can't be a lie.

Politicians are allowed to say things like "my opponent believes such and such".

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anonymouskimmer 20 hours ago | parent [-]

I think the idea of the comment you replied to is that the people whose out-of-office messages these appear to be are being defamed through the appearance of being partisan, or more strongly through the appearance of violating the Hatch act.

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tantalor 12 hours ago | parent [-]

Oh gotcha. If they could show a harm, like financial loss, then it could be.

I think a close analogy would be if I send a letter, but sign your name. If a reasonable person would think you wrote the letter, then this might qualify as defamation. IANAL

	▲	anonymouskimmer 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		> If they could show a harm, like financial loss, then it could be. IANAL, but I think directly writing a Hatch act violation on behalf of a person would fall under defamation per se, not defamation per quod, and thus harm would not have to be demonstrated. https://www.findlaw.com/injury/torts-and-personal-injuries/w...