Legal Commentary

Tenth Circuit Reaffirms That Obvious Parodies ? Which No Reasonable Reader Would Interpret as Factual Allegations ? Can?t Be Libelous

By Eugene Volokh

This is the Mink v. Knox (10th Cir. July 19), the latest in the Howling Pig saga. The parody led to an investigation and a search based on the premise that the parody constituted criminal libel; the author is now suing the prosecutor who appears to have authorized the search warrant, and the Tenth Circuit has just held that ?Because a reasonable person would not take the statements in the editorial column as statements of facts by or about Professor Peake, no reasonable prosecutor could believe it was probable that publishing such statements constituted a crime warranting search and seizure of Mr. Mink?s property.?

Thanks to How Appealing for the pointer.

Full post as published by The Volokh Conspiracy on July 19, 2010 (boomark / email).