The Onion has filed an amicus brief in a Supreme Court case, arguing that the Court should hear a case challenging the doctrine of qualified immunity for civil suits involving free speech.
The case was triggered when a guy in Parma Ohio put up a fake webpage, mocking the Parma police force. They charged him with a state felony for using a computer to disrupt police operations.
After his acquittal, he sued the police force for a violation of civil rights, but lost on the ground of qualified immunity of the police.
He’s now petitioning for the Surpeme Court to hear his appeal, and the Onion has filed an amicus brief in support:
“The Onion cannot stand idly by in the face of a ruling that threatens to disembowel a form of rhetoric that has existed for millennia, that is particularly potent in the realm of political debate, and that, purely incidentally, forms the basis of The Onion’s writers’ paychecks,” the brief says.
“The Onion regularly pokes its finger in the eyes of repressive and authoritarian regimes, such as the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea, and domestic presidential administrations,” the brief says. “So The Onion’s professional parodists were less than enthralled to be confronted with a legal ruling that fails to hold government actors accountable for jailing and prosecuting a would-be humorist simply for making fun of them.”
Ok, if Steve Lehto says it’s a long video it’ll have to wait until I have a lot of patience stored up. That guy uses way more words than necessary to communicate.
Otherwise, hope the Onion wins and this is only the beginning of dialing back qualified immunity.
You’re misreading the footnote. It’s stating, as required, that the brief was not authored by attorneys for any party. The Onion isn’t a party, but seeking to appear as a friend of the court (amicus).
The brief is signed by counsel of record for the Oinion.
I don’t make it a habit to read legal filings, but I have a suspicion that this is one of the most readable in the history of the Supreme Court. I hope those Latin dorks on the Court appreciate it.
It is truly amazing / horrifying to me how much real life now resembles what was in my youth obviously unrealistic, bordering on unthinkable, parody. By which I mean the case itself, not the Onion’s response.
