A federal judge on Monday blocked the enforcement of a North Carolina law prohibiting campaign ads that knowingly circulate false information about a candidate with the intent of hurting that candidate’s chances of winning, ruling the law is likely unconstitutional, Politico reports.

US District Judge Catherine Eagles’ ruling came in a case brought by Dem North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein’s 2020 campaign and other plaintiffs who last week had sued members of the State Board of Elections and Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman. Stein is seeking to block Freeman from prosecuting his 2020 campaign over an ad calling out loser Republican AG challenger Forsyth County DA Jim O’Neill over his office’s handling of rape kits. O’Neill had lodged a complaint with the State Board of Elections in September 2020 over the Shapiro attack ad, which said his office had “left 1,500 rape kits sitting on a shelf,” an assertion O’Neill said was false because law enforcement and not prosecutors are responsible for processing that evidence.

As a practical matter it would probably be pretty hard to prosecute and adjudicate this case fairly and justly. On one hand as the incumbent attorney general Stein should’ve known this. On the other, it’s a pretty ambiguous situation as a district attorney should have influence over local law enforcement and at least publicly could’ve pressured them to get their shit together, meaning Shapiro’s defense would be his campaign ad was merely calling out O’Neill on inaction. Such a law should not be struck so much fine tuned to carry an extremely high burden of proof, probably something on par with the actual malice standard of civil defamation.