The Onion, a parody website, requested that the Supreme Court consider the case of a man who was detained after setting up a false Facebook page that replicated the official page of a nearby police station in an amicus brief submitted on Monday.
“If Americans make mockery of the government, can they be jailed? America’s Finest News Source was surprised by this, and its editorial staff had an unpleasant learning experience “the briefing starts.
The Onion’s amicus brief, which is often submitted by parties with an interest in providing material important to a case or legal argument, is not fiction despite its reputation for sarcastic comedy.
The declaration was made in Anthony Novak’s defense after he in 2016 started a Facebook page mocking the Parma Police Department.
According to The Institute of Justice (IJ), a legal office defending Novak, the website had jokes about the department, such as a declaration of a “official stay inside and catch up with family day” to “reduce future crimes.”
In accordance with an Ohio statute that makes using a computer to “disrupt” “police activities” a felony, IJ said that the Parma police department “did not like Anthony’s criticism.” Novak was also charged with this crime.
Eventually, Novak filed a civil rights case, but the Sixth US Circuit Court of Appeals awarded the officers qualified immunity – a legal principle that shields police from lawsuits arising from events that happen while they’re on duty. As a result, Novak’s case was dismissed.
According to Cleveland.com, Novak’s counsel appealed the Sixth Circuit’s ruling to the Supreme Court on September 28.
The Sixth Circuit’s decision “imperils an old form of speech,” according to The Onion’s amicus brief, which is intended to persuade the Supreme Court to take the matter further.
The summary included examples from the Roman poet and author Horace and the comedian Mark Twain.
“The hilarious narrative is delivered earnestly; the narrator makes every effort to hide the fact that he even remotely believes that there is anything funny about it, as Mark Twain phrased it.
The Sixth Circuit is not only out of line with Twain, but it also does the American people a disservice by adding a requirement that parodists openly disavow their own pretension to realism to the reasonable-reader test.
It makes the false assumption that the average reader is less intelligent and witty than they really are “stated the brief.
The Institute of Justice is happy by The Onion’s support, according to a statement sent to Insider by Patrick Jaicomo, the case’s principal attorney.
“Parody — like that for which Mr. Novak was detained, incarcerated, and prosecuted by Parma, Ohio authorities — is not only a particularly powerful instrument to make a point, but a kind of communication totally protected by the First Amendment, as The Onion’s brief eloquently explains,” the statement stated.
“We believe that The Onion’s argument will assist us in persuading the Supreme Court to hear this case and ensuring that the First Amendment is upheld in American courts,” the brief reads.