Frese v. Formella

Throwing someone in jail for badmouthing a public official is profoundly undemocratic and un-American. 

But that didn’t stop police from arresting Robert Frese after he insulted them on Facebook. According to the Exeter Police Department in New Hampshire, Frese violated the state’s criminal libel law when he referred to an officer as a “coward” who was “covering up for a dirty cop.” New Hampshire’s law makes it a misdemeanor to say or write anything that you know is false that will expose someone to “public hatred, contempt or ridicule.”

The First Amendment doesn’t tolerate making a crime out of criticism. Early Americans denounced the Sedition Act of 1798, which made it a crime to publish “any false, scandalous and malicious writing . . . with intent to defame the  government.” And in the decades since, the Supreme Court has repeatedly affirmed that the right to criticize public officials lies at the very heart of the First Amendment—and our nation. 

Yet, more than a dozen states still maintain criminal libel laws. Worse yet, law enforcement officers too often treat these laws as tools to target government critics—and only critics. Magnifying this chilling effect is the trend of public officials selectively wielding other antiquated and obscure criminal statutes against naysayers and dissidents. 

On April 27, 2023, FIRE filed an amicus curiae brief urging the Supreme Court to hear Frese’s case and finally rid the country of speech-chilling criminal libel laws.

On October 2, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court denied the petition for certiorari.