Opinion ID: 2419685
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: the kenton county citizen's courier

Text: In order to gain the reader's attention and save the political campaign literature from being discarded immediately, Patricia Summe used an enticing format of a newsletter. The JRCC unanimously determined that the format of this item of campaign literature, a newsletter on slick paper entitled the Kenton County Citizen's Courier, was designed to give the impression to voters that an independent organization advocating child abuse issues supported Patricia Summe, and thus was a misrepresentation of fact in violation of Canon 7B(1)(c) of the Code of Judicial Conduct. Canon 7B(1)(c) provides a candidate should not misrepresent his identity, qualifications, present position, or other facts. Identity, qualifications, and present positions are quantifiable empirical facts and deeds that can be proven either to be true or to be not true. That is, identity, qualifications, and present positions are verifiable data about objects or events experienced through one of our five senses. As the term other facts is used in this context we should conclude that other facts require some deed or event that can be verified by objective evidence. To say the Kenton County Citizen's Courier is a misrepresentation is a value judgment. What the JRRC and the majority have done is substitute a qualitative value judgment when an empirical fact is required by the context of Canon 7B(1)(c). To say the Kenton County Citizen's Courier is deceptive is not an empirical fact but a factual value judgment existing only in the eye of the beholder. An example is seeing something in a delusion, which is not to see something but merely to think you are seeing something. When those in authority penalize judicial candidates for things that exist only in our minds, we are dangerously close to the Animal Farm or a Brave New World. Error is a distortion that results from a partial view of reality. Value judgments expressive of quality are abstract concepts that do not admit of error and therefore cannot be proven either to be true or to be not true. Truth is determined by a set of necessary and sufficient conditions and guidelines which must be met. For example, the term intelligent is used as an opinion or value judgment. When a baby says his first words, the parents say, My baby is intelligent. The parents are simply stating an opinion even though the baby may have an I.Q. of 160, but when the term intelligent was used, there were no conditions met to determine objectively whether the baby was intelligent or not. If we are going to find that the Kenton County Citizen's Courier is deceptive and misrepresentative, we should give judicial candidates guidelines to follow and conditions that must be met. Without guidelines, to say the Kenton County Citizen's Courier is an independent publication is a mere opinion and not a verifiable fact. Opinions differ from one case to another. Facts do not change. The concept of an independent publication of regular or periodic issue is the product of creative non-factual inferences. Other candidates have originated and recently used campaign literature entitled The Citizen's Courier. In Northern Kentucky the publication of these types of newsletters is as regular and periodic as elections in Kentucky which were at the time every six months. This is very similar to other modern mass marketing techniques. Examples are the literature from Reader's Digest and Publisher's Clearinghouse advising recipients that they may have won millions of dollars. The JRRC concluded that nowhere in the publication is there any suggestion that Patricia Summe's campaign is the source. It is obvious that the JRRC did not read the newsletter with a careful eye and did not perceive that which is there to be seen. It is wrong to say the newsletter is deceptive when evidence of its deception cannot be produced. The JRRC argues as follows: However, the letter is inset at an oblique angle which extends into the . . .; it is also printed with shadow images; this presents the letterhead as an insert or inclusion in the publication rather than as identity of the publisher. In Wilson v. Judicial Retirement and Removal Commission, Ky., 673 S.W.2d 426 (1984), this Court held that the JRRC is the finder of facts in any particular case and may make reasonable conclusions based on those facts. Id. at 427. To find that the Kenton County Citizen's Courier was an independent publication was not a reasonable conclusion because the context of Canon 7B(1)(c) requires verifiable facts. This item of campaign literature complied with all requirements of Kentucky campaign law because it contained a disclaimer revealing that it was paid for by the Summe campaign. KRS 121.190 provides: All . . . circulars, . . . handbills, . . . which expressly advocate the election or defeat of a clearly identified candidate, . . . for . . . election to any public office shall be identified by the words paid for by followed by the name and address of the individual or committee which paid for the communication;. . . The JRRC ignores reality when it states that nearly all of the newsletter's features, both individually and collectively, portray the publication as something other than campaign literature. The newsletter was nothing other than campaign propaganda. Such is obvious to anyone who examined the newsletter. The majority comments that the letter within the newsletter does not make it clear that the entire piece of campaign literature was paid for by the Summe campaign. There is nothing in KRS 121.190 that requires that the paid for by disclaimer be at any particular part of campaign literature. The statute merely requires a disclaimer for those inquiring minds that want to know more. The Kenton County Citizen's Courier reveals how an inquisitive voter could contact the Summe campaign because her law office of 3384 Madison Pike, Ft. Wright, Kentucky, was listed as the return address for the publication. The JRRC noted that there is not one indication on the front page of the document that it is a campaign advertisement distributed by Patricia Summe. Again, KRS 121.190 does not require the paid for by disclaimer on campaign literature to be designated on the first page, the last page, or any particular page. The statute merely requires that campaign literature contain the paid for by disclaimer. The Kenton County Citizen's Courier contained the paid for by disclaimer. Even though the newsletter was conventional for elections in Kenton County, the placement of the disclaimer was unconventional in that the disclaimer was part of a previously widely circulated campaign letter that was an inset in the newsletter. That is, when the letter was circulated, the paid for by disclaimer was clearly identified at the base of that sheet of paper. When the newsletter was prepared, the letter carrying the same paid for by disclaimer, became an integral inseparable part of the newsletter. Because KRS 121.190 does not specify that a disclaimer be placed at any particular place on campaign literature, Patricia Summe complied with the laws existing at that time by having the disclaimer on a letter that was part of the newsletter. Perhaps the majority and the JRRC think the newsletter should have had an additional disclaimer; however, the law requires only one disclaimer. The newsletter was marketed and distributed in such a manner that Summe's logo was distinctive and widely circulated on the back page where it was clearly visible. Every fact stated in the newsletter is true. Nothing that is stated is inaccurate. The JRRC and majority find a violation of ethics merely because of the location of the paid for by disclaimer in the newsletter. Had Patricia Summe placed her disclaimer conventionally at the end of one of the pages or at the top or the bottom of one of the pages of the newsletter, as the JRRC suggests, or perhaps lost the election, this issue would not be before us. This case is here because the JRRC drew the invalid deductive inference that the format was designed to give the impression that an independent organization (or some organization other than the Summe campaign) advocating child abuse issues supported Patricia Summe. A reading of the entire document reveals that there is not an independent organization because none exists and that no one other than the Summe campaign could have distributed the literature urging the election of Patricia Summe. The format, layout, and content of the newsletter had only one purpose: for people to vote for Patricia Summe rather than Frank Trusty. There is nothing in the Kenton County Citizen's Courier to indicate any attribution to an entity whatsoever other than the Patricia Summe campaign. In fact, the newsletter contained information that aided and assisted an interested voter in making an informed decision and inquiring further about the candidates. For this Patricia Summe should be commended. At the time of the distribution of the newsletter, the market had been saturated by the Summe logo. Those interested in the judicial election could recognize the logo and attribute the newsletter to the Summe campaign. There is nothing in the law that alerts, gives notice, prohibits, or cautions against having the paid for by disclaimer as part of a letterhead with a logo at an oblique angle as part of other campaign literature. Anyone who read the whole instrument would arrive at the only logically valid deduction that it was from the Summe campaign. Patricia Summe did not misrepresent any facts. She tactfully avoided any misrepresentation. She did everything the law requires. She merely did not present the facts in the form that the JRRC thinks she should. More importantly, she operated within the law which we had defined. To penalize Patricia Summe now is analogous to an ex post facto law. Patricia Summe complied with the applicable laws as they were written and pronounced at the time of her campaign. At the time the Summe campaign prepared and distributed the Kenton County Citizen's Courier, the baseline pronouncement from the Court concerning campaign literature was Doyle v. Judicial Retirement and Removal Commission, Ky., 885 S.W.2d 917 (1994). In Doyle this Court held that a political advertisement using a blatantly doctored photograph did not reach the level of deliberate misrepresentation of fact. This Court stated there was no attempt by Judge Doyle to pass the photo off as a statement of facts; therefore, the Commission's finding that the photo was a deliberate misrepresentation of fact was not based on clear and convincing evidence. It is a contradiction in terms that Judge Doyle's political advertisement was acceptable to this Court while Patricia Summe's is not. Patricia Summe's use of a true story presented to the general public in a newsletter format in no way rises to the level of Judge Doyle altering a photograph of her opponent and then insinuating that he adhered to a certain stance on a specific political issue. If this Court felt that Judge Doyle's use of an altered picture did not reach the level of a deliberate misrepresentation of fact, then how could Patricia Summe's use of a newsletter format be considered a misrepresentation of fact? After reading this Court's opinion in Doyle, Patricia Summe and her advisors certainly acted reasonably, logically, and in good faith in concluding that Kenton County Citizen's Courier was permissible campaign literature. They had no way of predicting that the JRRC would interpret the law differently from prior decisions of this Court. The conduct in Doyle was much more egregious than the conduct of Patricia Summe. Yet, we did not penalize Doyle, who lost the election. It is inconsistent and questionable to penalize less culpable conduct by one who won the election. Does the margin of victory or defeat determine the difference? There is no evidence that Patricia Summe's victory was in any way related to the newsletter and it is discriminatory to punish her just because she won. I also disagree with the majority's conclusion that JRRC's decision and Canon 7B(1)(c) satisfy constitutional requirements. Today's decision imposes a chilling effect upon the First Amendment rights of judicial candidates and the public's need to be informed. This is especially true when it is public knowledge that what Patricia Summe printed was true and the statutorily required disclaimer, acknowledging that Patricia Summe's campaign paid for the advertisements, was properly on the document. As Justice Wintersheimer pointed out in his dissent in Deters v. Judicial Ret. and Removal Comm'n, Ky., 873 S.W.2d 200 at 205-206: Political free speech is primary as the cornerstone of a responsible representative democracy because it relates directly to the function of government in a free society. An informed electorate is the foundation of true liberty. The judiciary is no exception and is subject only to limitations which must be carefully and narrowly drawn. . . . . . There is a fundamental right of people to know any candidate's views and to obtain the information that is relevant to them in making their electoral choices. A restriction on a candidate's right to engage in legitimate political discussion restricts the electoral process by not allowing the voters to obtain the necessary information. . . . The need and right of the voter to have information should be unchallenged and should be paramount in this consideration.. . . The United States Constitution guarantees the fundamental right of free speech. Congress can make no law and the government cannot enforce any law which abridges this guaranteed freedom. Similarly, Section 8 of the Kentucky Constitution provides that every person may freely and fully speak, write and print on any subject, being responsible for the abuse of that liberty.