Should it be illegal to slander a political opponent on the campaign trail?

More on that in a moment on the Face The State Radio Minute.

The Larimer County DA has announced he will not bring charges of false advertising against either Betsy Markey or Marilyn Musgrave, who squared off last year for a seat in the U.S. Congress. Both campaigns said the other had violated state law in making maliciously false statements against the other in campaign ads.

Free political speech is critical to our civil society, and criminal liability for statements on the campaign trail is an unsettling thought. The DA, Larry Abrahamson, told me he couldn't prove either camp slandered the other with malice, and so the complaints go nowhere. That's the right call. Voters are the best judge of a candidate's character, and most people have a good sense for fact and fiction. But it's not a matter for the courts, no matter how nasty campaigns have become.

For FaceTheState.com, I'm Brad Jones.