Lawyers have a sense of humor- here is a good discussion on satire under the law

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Here is some more on the Texas case cited by PopeHat on the NYT v. Isaacks
http://www.myplainview.com/news/article/Texas-Supreme-Court-finds-for-Dallas-Observer-in-8939386.php

A fictional Dallas Observer article about the arrest of a 6-year-old girl for a book report was satire and didn't libel two Denton County officials who sued the newspaper, the Texas Supreme Court ruled Friday.

The 8-0 ruling in favor of the Dallas Observer and three journalists stated that Denton County Court-at-law Judge Darlene Whitten and District Attorney Bruce Isaacks, who sued the alternative weekly paper, will get nothing.

The article in question was published in 1999 under the headline "Stop the Madness." It was a parody of the actual arrest of a 13-year-old Ponder student for reading a graphic Halloween story in class. The fictional article was about a girl jailed for a school book report on Maurice Sendak's children's story "Where the Wild Things Are."

Whitten and Isaacks said the fictional article was presented as news and damaged their reputations. Their attorney said that some people _ even lawyers, college professors and other journalists _ thought the story was true.

"It attributed quotes to them that they did not say, and it made them appear as if they had committed actual crimes and unethical conduct with regard to a child, who turns out to be fictional," said Mike Whitten, the attorney representing the two officials and the husband of Darlene Whitten.

This case got so much attention because even it Texas arresting a child is frowned on.

I am greatly amused by the legal discussion on satire. Lawyers do have a sense of humor and we have the case law to prove it

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1. Gee...have they ever seen The Onion?