Fact Checker: Fact-checking the judiciary: Our first Pinocchio rating to a Supreme Court justice

Fact-checking the judiciary: Our first Pinocchio rating to a Supreme Court justice The Supreme Court issued several rulings this week, and one of the opinions caught our attention. It led to our first Pinocchio rating to a Supreme Court justice. The justices ruled unanimously that a North Carolina law banning registered sex offenders from accessing …   Democracy Dies in Darkness     The truth behind the rhetoric   Fact-checking the judiciary: Our first Pinocchio rating to a Supreme Court justice The Supreme Court issued several rulings this week, and one of the opinions caught our attention. It led to our first Pinocchio rating to a Supreme Court justice. The justices ruled unanimously that a North Carolina law banning registered sex offenders from accessing certain social networking websites violated First Amendment rights. But three justices wrote a separate opinion to stress that states have a responsibility to try to stop the abuse of children before it occurs. Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who authored the opinion expressing partial agreement, said convicted sex offenders are "much more likely than any other type of offender to be rearrested for a new rape or sexual assault." But this claim was quite misleading. When you dig into the data, it's clear Alito has fallen for an apples-and-oranges comparison — one that unfairly compares sex offenders to non-sex offenders. Sex offenders have a relatively low rate of committing the same sex crime after being released from prison. We issued Three Pinocchios to Justice Alito. Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this e-mail was forwarded to you, sign up here for the weekly newsletter. Hear something fact-checkable? Send it here, we’ll check it out.  Nancy Pelosi’s claim on job loss and the GOP health bill  House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said that an estimated 1.8 million jobs will be lost due to the House GOP health bill, the Affordable Health Care Act (AHCA). Is that really the case? Pelosi was relying on a March report by the left-leaning Center for American Progress (CAP), adapting an earlier study by experts at George Washington University on the impact of full repeal of Obamacare. That study found that full repeal would lead to a loss of almost 3 million jobs by 2021. ADVERTISEMENT   But the George Washington University experts whose research was the basis for the CAP report did their own study on AHCA, which was published in June. They estimated a loss of 413,000 jobs by 2022 — less than one-quarter of the two other estimates. (By 2026, the predicted job losses would reach 924,000.) Moreover, the researchers said that the repeal of tax cuts in the law would help to initially increase the number of jobs by 864,000 in 2018. Most of the long-term job losses would be in the health-care sector. Still, another economic model suggested 1.8 million lost jobs – while others perceived job gains. Given the range of outcomes, Pelosi should be more careful about citing such a precise figure. We awarded Two Pinocchios to Pelosi. giphy.com We’re always looking for fact-check suggestions! You can also reach us via email, Twitter (@myhlee, @GlennKesslerWP or use #FactCheckThis), or Facebook (Fact Checker or myhlee). Read about our rating scale here, and sign up here for our weekly Fact Checker newsletter.  Scroll down for this week’s Pinocchio roundup. — Michelle Ye Hee Lee Trump’s claim about the ‘catastrophe’ of Obamacare premiums increasing 204 percent in Alaska We look into President Trump's claim about soaring health insurance premiums in Alaska. By Michelle Ye Hee Lee  •  Read more »   Justice Alito’s misleading claim about sex offender rearrests In an opinion in a free speech case, Justice Samuel Alito presented a misleading characterization of sex offender recidivism. By Michelle Ye Hee Lee  •  Read more »   Pelosi’s claim that an estimated 1.8 million jobs will be lost through AHCA The House Democratic leader said job losses would occur under the GOP health-care plan. But other studies have different results. By Glenn Kessler  •  Read more »   History Lesson: How the Democrats pushed Obamacare through the Senate Democrats like to recall days of open debate in the Senate on Obamacare. But the real work was behind closed doors. By Glenn Kessler  •  Read more »   Mitch McConnell on the health-care legislative process, 2010 vs. 2017 The Senate Majority Leader earns an Upside-Down Pinocchio for his shifting rhetoric on passing health-care legislation. By Glenn Kessler  •  Read more »   ADVERTISEMENT   Recommended for you   The Energy 202 Your daily guide to the energy and environment debate. Sign Up »         Share Fact Checker:       Twitter      Facebook Trouble reading? Click here to view in your browser. 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