Opinion | As the Giuliani case goes forward, courts should think deeply about the First Amendment - The Washington Post

Opinion | As the Giuliani case goes forward, courts should think deeply about the First Amendment - The Washington Post

By Bruce Green (Fordham) and Rebecca Roiphe (New York Law) 

A New York appellate court has temporarily suspended former mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s law license, writing that he had made “demonstrably false and misleading statements to courts, lawmakers and the public at large.” Just as lawyers who participated in the Watergate scandal were held to account, so too should former president Donald Trump’s lawyers pay a price if they engaged in illegal or unethical conduct. As this case continues, however, the disciplinary agency and courts should be careful not to chill lawyers’ political speech.

The court’s opinion recounts Giuliani’s misleading statements that cast doubt on the legitimacy of the presidential election and concludes that he knew they were false. These were specific statements, not just hyperbole or opinion. For example, the opinion says, Giuliani falsely asserted that more absentee ballots were received than had been mailed out in Pennsylvania, and that tens of thousands of underage voters, 2,500 felons and 800 deceased people voted in Georgia.....