"Latin Dorks" To Rule In Satire Court Case

Michael Hedges October 5, 2022 - Follow on Twitter

Parody and satire are quite common literary forms. Also, they are very important. For if stupidity is taken for truth a formal outlet for challenge is necessary. Mental health must be protected. Satirists do this. We should be grateful.

A few years ago Anthony Novak, a young man from a Cleveland, Ohio suburb in the United States, posted on Facebook a series of spoof posts about the local police department. Some people took these seriously, as in factual. This included the local police department. To begin with Cleveland has been the target of satire for more than a generation, something about fires on the lake. Then, too, nobody smarter than an ant takes seriously any Facebook post. Apologies to ants of the world.

Mr. Novak posted little blurbs saying the local police department was hiring but “strongly encouraging minorities to not apply." There were other gems. The local police department criminally prosecuted Mr. Novak. It was dismissed. Alas, he felt his rights under the US Constitution had been violated and made that claim in court. It, too, was dismissed. Undaunted, he filed an appeal, his constitutional right. The Sixth Circuit Federal Appeals court tossed his claim, citing the “qualified immunity” of the police officers.

The one remaining step for Mr. Novak would be to the US Supreme Court, the court of last resort. And there the case sits today. He is asking the Supreme Court to hear his free speech claim. Published over the last day or so have been dozens of reports, in the US and elsewhere, mostly a bit snarky, revealing details of the petition the the Supreme Court.

Flooding the field, so to speak, is the friend of the court (Amicus Curiae) brief filing from The Onion on Monday, the first day of the new Supreme Court term. The Onion is a quite popular satirical publication, available online. It was founded in 1988 by University of Wisconsin (Madison) students, later moved to New York City, now in Chicago. It is famous for taking mundane story lines and turning them into hilarious comedy. One of the most famous, from 2018, was “Rotation Of Earth Plunges Entire North American Continent Into Darkness.” Numerous examples abound of other publications citing The Onion as if the articles were literally true. This has only led to its fame though not necessarily from the US right-wing.

"Americans can be put in jail for poking fun at the government?This was a surprise to America’s Finest News Source and an uncomfortable learning experience for its editorial team," said the amicus brief. "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."

It continued: "Tu stultus es. You are dumb. These three Latin words have been The Onion’s motto and guiding light since it was founded in 1988. The Onion’s motto is central to this brief for two important reasons. First, it’s Latin. And The Onion knows that the federal judiciary is staffed entirely by total Latin dorks.”

The obvious purpose of Mr. Novak’s filing and The Onion’s amicus brief is defending satire and parody. “Put simply, for parody to work, it has to plausibly mimic the original,” said the amicus brief, in “the dry tone of an Associated Press news story. The petition for certiorari should be granted, the rights of the people vindicated, and various historical wrongs remedied. The Onion would welcome any one of the three, particularly the first.”

“Satire is protected speech even if the object of satire doesn't get it,” said US comedian and former US Senator Al Franken.

See also...

• Hot Topics - Press/Media Freedom

• Hot Topics - Journalism