Volokh agrees: The First Amendment probably protects lying to the media

A major First Amendment expert agrees that someone probably should challenge the constitutionality of a Virginia statute now in the news.

I wrote Monday that while Scott Ziegler, the recently fired superintendent of schools in Loudoun County, Virginia, surely deserves condemnation for flagrantly mishandling a transgender sexual assault case, he ought to challenge one of the three indictment counts leveled against him — the violation of Virginia Code § 18.2-209, which makes it a criminal misdemeanor to “knowingly and willfully” give a “false or untrue statement” to the media for publication or broadcast.