It is the kind of thing you might expect in Iran, or North Korea, or hell, maybe the state of Victoria: a man arrested by the police for a social media post making fun of them.
But surely this would never stand in the United States, with its enshrined protections for free speech?
Ohio man Anthony Novak has spent many years testing that theory the hard way. Back in 2015, he created a Facebook page parodying his local police force and was promptly arrested for using a computer to “disrupt, interrupt, or impair” police services. He was unanimously acquitted and is now suing the officers involved for the violation of his free speech rights under the US constitution’s First Amendment.
Shockingly, earlier this year, the US Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit ruled that the officers in question were protected by qualified immunity, meaning they can’t be liable for violating constitutional rights unless their alleged misconduct breaks “clearly established” law, and therefore couldn’t be sued.
Non-profit public interest law firm the Institute for Justice is now asking the Supreme Court to review the decision. And it’s not alone — king of news satire The Onion has joined the debate, filing an amicus brief in the court supporting Novak’s case. It’s just as you might expect, weaving serious points in with a few pointed gags:
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.
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