Levy opponents sue for right to spread false information
State law prohibits the dissemination of information aimed at defeating a ballot question if that information is known to be false. Alleged violations of the law end up before the state Office of Administrative Hearings.
Attorney Erick Kaardal claims that system is violating his clients' free-speech rights.
"It's so bizarre that Minnesota has designed a system where a state agency would actually regulate and determine the truthfulness of political speech with regard to a school bond referendum," he said.
Kaardal is representing Ron Stoffel of the 281 CARE Committee, a group that opposed a levy in Robbinsdale, and Victor Niska of the WISE Citizen Committee in the Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted school district. He described the men as perpetually opposed to school levy referendums. Ballot questions on levies failed in both districts Tuesday.
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Kaardal said Niska has previously faced allegations of false political speech. And he said Stoffel is anticipating that Robbinsdale will file a similar complaint against him. Kaardal said school district voters, not a state agency, should decide the truthfulness of a campaign, and he wants a federal judge to declare the law unconstitutional.
"My clients are concerned in the future that school board administrators and their allies will increase the use of the Office of Administrative Hearing process and make claims that my clients have made mistaken interpretation of the data, they've made mistaken opinions, and so forth," he said. "The statue is just far too broad and gives school bond supporters too much latitude to file complaints."
The Office of Administrative Hearings wasn't aware of the lawsuit and referred calls the the Attorney General's office. An attorney there also had not seen the complaint and would not comment.
Robbinsdale Superintendent Stan Mack described the lawsuit as "amazing." Mack said he can't believe opponents would sue for the right to use false information in a levy campaign. He views the lawsuit as an admission of the tactics used in Robbinsdale.
"They made valiant attempts and were successful at misleading voters in the district by blatant distribution of blatantly false material," he said.
Mack said there's been no complaint filed from Robbinsdale against the levy opposition group. But he said the school district is still weighing its options for dealing with the false information spread about the referendum.
