American satirical publication The Onion on Monday filed an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of an Ohio man who is suing his local police department for violating his First Amendment rights by arresting him over a satirical Facebook page.
Anthony Novak was arrested in 2016 after he launched a Facebook page that looked almost identical to that of the Parma, Ohio, Police Department’s official Facebook page.
Novak published six posts on the page in which he parodied the police department’s “questionable policing,” according to his lawyers, including posts regarding the department’s “heavy-handed tactics.”
The posts were an “obvious parody,” his lawyers said, and included one announcement of an “official stay inside and catch up with family day” to “reduce future crimes” from taking place in Ohio, during which anyone who was caught outside risked being arrested by police….