NolaAuTiger 3,295 Posted October 20, 2022 Share Posted October 20, 2022 Anthony Novak sued a local Ohio police department for violating his constitutional rights after he was arrested for creating a Facebook account parodying the department. The case made its way to SCOTUS after the Sixth Circuit granted the officers qualified immunity (the government's response brief hasn't been filed yet). With that as backdrop, you will love this amicus brief filed by news outlet The Onion. The amicus brief was submitted in support of Mr. Novak's petition. Here is the link: https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-293/242596/20221006144840674_Novak Parma Onion Amicus Brief.pdf 1 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,396 Posted October 20, 2022 Share Posted October 20, 2022 (edited) 52 minutes ago, NolaAuTiger said: Anthony Novak sued a local Ohio police department for violating his constitutional rights after he was arrested for creating a Facebook account parodying the department. The case made its way to SCOTUS after the Sixth Circuit granted the officers qualified immunity (the government's response brief hasn't been filed yet). With that as backdrop, you will love this amicus brief filed by news outlet The Onion. The amicus brief was submitted in support of Mr. Novak's petition. Here is the link: https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-293/242596/20221006144840674_Novak Parma Onion Amicus Brief.pdf OMG! That was absolutely, freakin hilarious! I kept thinking this had to be my favorite paragraph, but it seemed like each subsequent paragraph would trump it. (There I go mentioning Trump again ) Presumably, the original story of Mr. Novak's actual arrest is true? (I am almost afraid to ask.) And presumably if so, The Onion actually filed this amicus brief? What a fabulous exposition on parody! And I can certainly see why it appealed to a lawyer. Thanks so much for sharing! (And keep us updated on the case please.) Edited October 20, 2022 by homersapien 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AUDub 11,158 Posted October 20, 2022 Share Posted October 20, 2022 (edited) "First, it’s Latin. And The Onion knows that the federal judiciary is staffed entirely by total Latin dorks: They quote Catullus in the original Latin in chambers. They sweetly whisper “stare decisis” into their spouses’ ears. They mutter “cui bono” under their breath while picking up after their neighbors’ dogs. So The Onion knew that, unless it pointed to a suitably Latin rallying cry, its brief would be operating far outside the Court’s vernacular." ded Edited October 20, 2022 by AUDub 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,396 Posted October 20, 2022 Share Posted October 20, 2022 (edited) The Onion learned about the Sixth Circuit’s ruling in this case, it became justifiably concerned. First, the obvious: The Onion’s business model was threatened. This was only the latest occasion on which the absurdity of actual events managed to eclipse what The Onion’s staff could make up. Much more of this, and the front page of The Onion would be indistin- guishable from The New York Times. Edited October 21, 2022 by homersapien 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NolaAuTiger 3,295 Posted October 20, 2022 Author Share Posted October 20, 2022 "INTEREST OF THE AMICUS CURIAE The Onion is the world’s leading news publication, offering highly acclaimed, universally revered coverage of breaking national, international, and local news events. Rising from its humble beginnings as a print newspaper in 1756, The Onion now enjoys a daily readership of 4.3 trillion and has grown into the single most powerful and influential organization in human history. In addition to maintaining a towering standard of excellence to which the rest of the industry aspires, The Onion supports more than 350,000 full- and part-time journalism jobs in its numerous news bureaus and manual labor camps stationed around the world, and members of its editorial board have served with distinction in an advisory capacity for such nations as China, Syria, Somalia, and the former Soviet Union. On top of its journalistic pursuits, The Onion also owns and operates the majority of the world’s transoceanic shipping lanes, stands on the nation’s leading edge on matters of deforestation and strip mining, and proudly conducts tests on millions of animals daily." 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NolaAuTiger 3,295 Posted October 20, 2022 Author Share Posted October 20, 2022 4 hours ago, homersapien said: Presumably, the original story of Mr. Novak's actual arrest is true? (I am almost afraid to ask.) And presumably if so, The Onion actually filed this amicus brief? Correct. Here is the docket: https://www.supremecourt.gov/search.aspx?filename=/docket/docketfiles/html/public/22-293.html The Onion filed its amicus brief earlier this month, on October 3rd. I'm waiting for The Babylon Bee to step in! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AUDub 11,158 Posted October 21, 2022 Share Posted October 21, 2022 6 hours ago, NolaAuTiger said: "INTEREST OF THE AMICUS CURIAE The Onion is the world’s leading news publication, offering highly acclaimed, universally revered coverage of breaking national, international, and local news events. Rising from its humble beginnings as a print newspaper in 1756, The Onion now enjoys a daily readership of 4.3 trillion and has grown into the single most powerful and influential organization in human history. In addition to maintaining a towering standard of excellence to which the rest of the industry aspires, The Onion supports more than 350,000 full- and part-time journalism jobs in its numerous news bureaus and manual labor camps stationed around the world, and members of its editorial board have served with distinction in an advisory capacity for such nations as China, Syria, Somalia, and the former Soviet Union. On top of its journalistic pursuits, The Onion also owns and operates the majority of the world’s transoceanic shipping lanes, stands on the nation’s leading edge on matters of deforestation and strip mining, and proudly conducts tests on millions of animals daily." Everything about this amicus brief is solid effing gold. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,396 Posted October 21, 2022 Share Posted October 21, 2022 "In this case, by contrast, the Sixth Circuit ruled that the defendant officers “could reasonably believe that some of Novak’s Facebook activity was not par- ody” primarily because Mr. Novak “delet[ed] comments that made clear the page was fake.” Pet. App. 8a–9a. But the lack of an explicit disclaimer makes no differ- ence to whether a reasonable reader would discern that this speech was parody. Just to be clear, this was not a close call on the facts: Mr. Novak’s spoof Facebook posts advertised that the Parma Police Department was hosting a “pedophile reform event” in which successful participants could be removed from the sex offender registry and become honorary members of the department after completing puzzles and quizzes; that the department had discov- ered an experimental technique for abortions and would be providing them to teens for free in a police van; that the department was soliciting job applicants but that minorities were “strongly encourag[ed]” not to apply; and that the department was banning city resi- dents from feeding homeless people in “an attempt to have the homeless population eventually leave our City due to starvation.” Pet. App. 139a–41a" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,396 Posted October 21, 2022 Share Posted October 21, 2022 "The Onion intends to continue its socially valuable role bringing the disinfectant of sunlight into the halls of power. See Buckley v. Valeo, 424 U.S. 1, 67 (1976) (quoting Louis D. Brandeis, Other People’s Money and How the Bankers Use It 62 (National Home Library Foundation ed. 1933)). And it would vastly prefer that sunlight not to be measured out to its writers in 15- minute increments in an exercise yard." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NolaAuTiger 3,295 Posted November 16, 2022 Author Share Posted November 16, 2022 THE BABYLON BEE HAS STEPPED IN. I REPEAT, THE BABYLON BEE HAS STEPPED IN! https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-293/244213/20221028092221628_Babylon Bee - Amicus Brief.pdf @AUDub @homersapien 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NolaAuTiger 3,295 Posted November 16, 2022 Author Share Posted November 16, 2022 On 10/20/2022 at 3:59 PM, NolaAuTiger said: I'm waiting for The Babylon Bee to step in! Glorious. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
homersapien 11,396 Posted November 16, 2022 Share Posted November 16, 2022 Pretty good, but not quite as funny as the Onion's. "As a matter of fact, The Bee is serving a brutal life sentence in Twitter jail as we speak.8 Its writers would very much like to avoid a consecutive sentence in a government-run facility." "Truth is stranger than fiction. And fiction is ille- gal. At least in the Sixth Circuit. " "The Onion may be staffed by socialist wackos, but in their brief defending parody to this Court, they hit it out of the park. Parody has a unique capacity to speak truth to power and to cut its subjects down to size. Its continued protection under the First Amend- ment is crucial to preserving the right of citizens to effectively criticize the government. Furthermore, parody shouldn’t be stripped of con- stitutional protection just because it’s not clearly la- beled as parody. And requiring that parody be written so as to ensure that the most gullible in our society— the Facebook-using grandmother, the tween TikTok addict, the CNN reporter—don’t take it seriously ru- ins the parody for everyone else." 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NolaAuTiger 3,295 Posted November 17, 2022 Author Share Posted November 17, 2022 16 hours ago, homersapien said: As a matter of fact, The Bee is serving a brutal life sentence in Twitter jail as we speak.8 Its writers would very much like to avoid a consecutive sentence in a government-run facility Pure Gold!!! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aubiefifty 16,826 Posted November 17, 2022 Share Posted November 17, 2022 On 10/20/2022 at 10:41 AM, NolaAuTiger said: Anthony Novak sued a local Ohio police department for violating his constitutional rights after he was arrested for creating a Facebook account parodying the department. The case made its way to SCOTUS after the Sixth Circuit granted the officers qualified immunity (the government's response brief hasn't been filed yet). With that as backdrop, you will love this amicus brief filed by news outlet The Onion. The amicus brief was submitted in support of Mr. Novak's petition. Here is the link: https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/22/22-293/242596/20221006144840674_Novak Parma Onion Amicus Brief.pdf i never saw this before but i have to say i saw several words i have no clue to what they mean. and i probably read close to fifty books a year. but i use to love the onion and did not know they were still around. have you been sued for malpractice yet? grins..................i kid 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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