Brown v. Hartlage

Furthermore, Brennan stated, Section 121.055 was not even justified on the basis of the assertion that it would prevent the use of factual misstatements in a political campaign. (In this case, since the salary was "fixed by law," Brown and Creech were factually as well as legally in error, because they did not have the power to change their salaries.) Freedom of expression must have "breathing space" in order to flourish, and to void the appellants' victory in the election "would be inconsistent with the atmosphere of robust political debate required by the First Amendment." In American campaigns, candidates say a lot of things, and trying to force them by law to always be correct would do more harm than good.

Besides, said Brennan, to all appearances the promise was made in good faith, and the two candidates did not seem to realize that they were acting in error. In addition, they retracted their statement promptly.