Friends of the Court 

Back in June, John Oliver ripped into the coal industry in a tremendous segment on “Last Week Tonight”. As part of this segment, he tore into coal executive Bob Murray, who has a history of being litigious when it comes to supposed defamation. Predictably, but no less the ridiculous for it, Murray sued.

Now, HBO is fighting back, and the ACLU has filed a tremendous amicus brief in support of Oliver.1 With sections like “All of John Oliver’s Speech Was Protected by the First Amendment. You Can’t Sue People for Being Mean to You, Bob.”, this brief is an enjoyable read even for folks with no legal background.


Footnotes:

  1. The brief is available on the ACLU’s site, but a copy is also archived here. ↩︎