October marked the beginning of a new session of the US Supreme Court. Abortion was a hot topic for last session. Could having the right to tell a joke or do a parody be a hot topic this time around?
Parody, if you didn’t know, is protected by the 1st Amendment. And by protected, that means that government officials shouldn’t be able to arrest you and throw you in jail for telling a joke or doing a parody.
Yet, in Novak v. City of Parma, Anthony Novak was thrown in jail for doing just that. This 1st Amendment rights case deals with protections for humor and parody, especially in the realm of political speech. In 2016, Anthony Novak created a fake Facebook page but then deleted the page 12 hours later. Find out more about the case, its implications on the 1st amendment, and how communists have censored comedians in the past on this episode of Constitution Corner.
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2.) Learn more about the 1st Amendment by watching this video: https://youtu.be/SNqhVhDDmR0