Sometimes, our elected representatives openly show us they haven’t glanced at the Constitution in a long time…if at all. But here at American Constitutional Rights Union, we are here to remind them that the First Amendment is first for a reason.
When Hawaii decided to make it illegal to create AI-generated political content that might be “materially deceptive” or harm a candidate’s “electoral prospects,” I knew exactly where this was headed–straight to the Ministry of Truth, where government bureaucrats get to decide what counts as satire and what counts as sedition.
Some of this sounds reasonable… for a second. But remember, it was not at all long ago when political opponents wanted to silence the Babylon Bee because “people might think it’s real.” So, the concerns over this type of legislation overstepping are not at all inflated.
Last week, a federal judge put a stop to that nonsense. U.S. District Judge Shanlyn Park struck down Hawaii’s 2024 Act 191, ruling it violated both the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The Babylon Bee, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, won a decisive victory for every American who’s cracked jokes about politicians or shared a political meme.
Here’s what should terrify you: Hawaii’s law didn’t just target obvious fakes. It banned content that created a “risk of harming the reputation or electoral prospects of a candidate.” Think about that. A risk of harming reputation. That’s not a legal standard in any rational world.
Judge Park got it right: “Act 191 discriminates based on content and speaker and, in doing so, restricts constitutionally protected political speech.”
Politicians don’t get to decide what speech might make them look bad. That’s not how the First Amendment works. Political satire has been protected since before the ink dried on the Bill of Rights, and it’ll be protected long after today’s thin-skinned legislators are retired to their private islands, made affordable with proceeds from “lucky investments” of their government salaries.
At ACRU, we know this fight isn’t over. Every day, some politician dreams up a new “reasonable restriction” on speech. Our job is to stop them. Freedom of speech is one of the bedrock principles on which our Constitutional Republic stands.
When the Government Decides What’s Funny
Lori Roman
February 23, 2026
Sometimes, our elected representatives openly show us they haven’t glanced at the Constitution in a long time…if at all. But here at American Constitutional Rights Union, we are here to remind them that the First Amendment is first for a reason.
When Hawaii decided to make it illegal to create AI-generated political content that might be “materially deceptive” or harm a candidate’s “electoral prospects,” I knew exactly where this was headed–straight to the Ministry of Truth, where government bureaucrats get to decide what counts as satire and what counts as sedition.
Some of this sounds reasonable… for a second. But remember, it was not at all long ago when political opponents wanted to silence the Babylon Bee because “people might think it’s real.” So, the concerns over this type of legislation overstepping are not at all inflated.
Last week, a federal judge put a stop to that nonsense. U.S. District Judge Shanlyn Park struck down Hawaii’s 2024 Act 191, ruling it violated both the First and Fourteenth Amendments. The Babylon Bee, represented by Alliance Defending Freedom, won a decisive victory for every American who’s cracked jokes about politicians or shared a political meme.
Here’s what should terrify you: Hawaii’s law didn’t just target obvious fakes. It banned content that created a “risk of harming the reputation or electoral prospects of a candidate.” Think about that. A risk of harming reputation. That’s not a legal standard in any rational world.
Judge Park got it right: “Act 191 discriminates based on content and speaker and, in doing so, restricts constitutionally protected political speech.”
Politicians don’t get to decide what speech might make them look bad. That’s not how the First Amendment works. Political satire has been protected since before the ink dried on the Bill of Rights, and it’ll be protected long after today’s thin-skinned legislators are retired to their private islands, made affordable with proceeds from “lucky investments” of their government salaries.
At ACRU, we know this fight isn’t over. Every day, some politician dreams up a new “reasonable restriction” on speech. Our job is to stop them. Freedom of speech is one of the bedrock principles on which our Constitutional Republic stands.
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