The Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that a satirical Facebook page of a Ohio police department was protected by the First Amendment. The court found that the Ohio law cited by the police wrongly criminalized speech in arresting the man publishing the parody. The court said the law was broad and vague allowing police to file criminal charges when they object to speech they find objectionable “under the banner of probable cause.”(Courthouse News Service, July 29, 2019, by Joe Kelly)
The appeals court rejected an attempt by the Parma Police Department to dismiss Anthony Novak’s lawsuit against the department. Novak can try to show there were First Amendment violations and that the police subjected him to prior restraint. (Reuters, July 29, 2019, by Jonathan Stempel)