Satirical publication 'The Onion' defends right to parody in US Supreme Court

The Onion, a satirical journal, has requested that the US Supreme Court take up a matter involving the freedom to parody in a very serious legal filing. And the filing does what the Onion does best, serving up a heaping helping of complete nonsense, in order to make a serious legal point.

The document refers to The Onion as "the single most powerful and influential organization in human history," with a claimed global viewership of 4.3 trillion. It provides 350,000 jobs at its offices and "manual labour camps," "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”.

Why does the Onion feel the need to comment on a routine court matter when it has such influence? The lawsuit states that it is being made "to protect its continued ability to create fiction that may ultimately merge into reality." The writers of The Onion are likewise motivated by self-interest to stop political authorities from jailing humorists. In an effort to at least lessen their potential penalty in the future, this brief is presented.

Its headline, "Ohio Police Officers Arrest, Prosecute Man Who Made Fun of Them on Facebook," expresses anxiety about the result of the case. The filing notes that although it seems like a headline from The Onion, it is not.