Supreme Court

Have you heard the joke about the writers at The Onion and nine Supreme Court justices walking into a bar ….

Ok, not really. But in a move that’s delighting lawyers everywhere, The Onion filed an amicus curiae brief with the US Supreme Court urging it to take a case out of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals involving the First Amendment and parody. If you aren’t familiar with The Onion, it’s a long-running satirical news site that regularly skewers politics and politicians, social media, sports, celebrities, corporations, the media, religion, etc. etc. etc. Like this famous article Johnson & Johnson Introduces ‘Nothing But Tears’ Shampoo To Toughen Up Newborns (theonion.com).

The case involves a man who created a parody account for the local police department, was arrested for it, charged with disrupting police operations, and found not guilty. The man, Anthony Novak, then sued the police department for violating his First Amendment rights to freedom of speech. And the lower courts dismissed his lawsuit. Novak has now asked the US Supreme Court to hear the case, which is why The Onion filed its amicus brief urging the Court to take the case.

An amicus curiae brief is a brief filed by a person or organization not involved in the lawsuit to give a court their perspective on an issue it will decide. Lots of industry groups file them in cases involving environmental or other regulatory cases. The ACLU is also a frequent filer in cases involving the First Amendment. The NRA frequently files them in cases involving gun rights and the Second Amendment. And now, also The Onion.

The brief is part legal argument and part art. It simultaneously makes a serious point about the First Amendment and the importance of parody while using its well-known irreverent and tongue-in-cheek manner.

For example, in the very first section where the person or organization filing the brief explains their interest in the litigation. Here’s how The Onion begins its brief:

Good stuff, right? It’s obviously not true, but that’s the point of parody.

The Onion argues there’s a long and important history of parody, going back thousands of years to ancient Greece, being used for political commentary. It explains how parody works:

Along the way, it has a little fun at the expense of the federal courts:

The Onion concludes its brief by arguing the First Amendment has long protected parody and should continue to protect it because of its value as political commentary:

And in the best concluding paragraph I’ve ever seen in a brief, The Onion says this:

Bravo!

The author of the brief was interviewed on NPR a couple of days ago and he had some interesting things to say.