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Shirley you can't be serious

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Okay, so this is really funny but it's also very serious. The Onion filed an amicus brief in a US Supreme Court case where an Ohio man was arrested for parodying and criticizing police on social media. One of the issues was whether the guy's satirical expressions about police amounted to a protected form of speech and thus whether his arrest was an unconstitutional infringement of his First Amendment right to free speech. The Onion's amicus brief very humorously explains what parody is, why it's a constitutionally protected form of speech, and gives exceedingly funny examples. For those who read pleadings for a living, this brief is a breath of fresh air.

The brief begins:

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 parttime 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.


The Onion amicus curiae brief
 
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