By John R. Byrne
Ever wonder what it'd be like if the staff at The Onion tried its hand at writing a brief? We basically got that yesterday. The online newspaper filed an Amicus brief yesterday with the Supreme Court asking the Court to take up the case of Novak v. City of Parma, Ohio, 33 F.4th 296 (6th Cir. 2022). In short, in 2016 Novak created a Facebook page parodying the Parma Police Department. Novak was arrested, spent five days in jail, and was actually prosecuted, ultimately securing an acquittal. He later sued the City and several police officers for violating the First Amendment. The district court granted summary judgment to the defendants and the Sixth Circuit affirmed.
The Onion is now asking the Court to take the case, seeing the ruling as a threat to its "business model." The Onion also fires a (tongue in cheek) shot across the bow at the federal judiciary, which "is staffed entirely by total Latin dorks" who "sweetly whisper 'stare decisis' into their spouses’ ears." Some court watchers say sanctions could be coming. I hope not.
5 comments:
Sanctions from this Court? That would be rich.
That brief is beneath the dignity of the High Court - said no one ever.
I can see them issuing the sanctions order the same day Roberts gets his wish that the Voting Rights Act is struck down. Balls and strikes my ass.
Word on the street is that Trump has asked Singhal to transfer his defamation case against CNN to Cannon.
Supreme Court sanctions onion lawyers for brief….indeed, that would prove its point. Lighten up.
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