On May 16, U.S. District Court Judge Charles C. Lovell, a Reagan appointee, struck down two Montana laws that regulate campaign advertising. In both cases, the reason is that the laws are too vague. The case is Lair v Murry, 6:12-12.

One law says: “printed election material that includes information about another candidate’s voting record must include a disclosure of contrasting votes known to have been made by the same candidate on the same issue of closely related in time.” The other law makes it unlawful “for a person to misrepresent a candidate’s public voting record or any other matter that is relevant to the issues of the campaign with knowledge that the assertion is false.”