Multiple government entities across the country are now paying out hefty legal settlements after doing what any reasonable person would consider insane — threatening, arresting, and even jailing American citizens for the crime of sharing political memes online. And guess who picks up the tab? You do, taxpayer.
Imagine being a government official and thinking, "You know what's a great use of public resources? Arresting a retired cop over a meme." These are the people running things, folks.
Let's start with Hawaii, where the state just agreed to pay $118,237.47 in attorney's fees and costs after trying to silence political activist Dawn O'Brien and the Christian satire site The Babylon Bee. Governor Josh Green, a Democrat, signed Hawaii Act 191 in 2024, which banned "materially deceptive" content — because apparently the government gets to decide what's funny now. U.S. District Judge Shanlyn Park had already blocked the law, and the settlement in Babylon Bee v. Lopez makes the humiliation official.
Alliance Defending Freedom legal counsel Mathew Hoffmann didn't mince words: "For centuries, humor and satire have served as an important vehicle to deliver truth with a smile, and this kind of speech receives the utmost protection under the Constitution. Hawaii's war against political memes and satire has come to an end, thankfully."
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But Hawaii's payout looks like pocket change compared to what happened in Perry County, Tennessee. Retired cop Larry Bushart spent 37 days in jail — thirty-seven actual days — after Sheriff Nick Weems had him arrested over a meme. His bond was set at $2 million. For a meme. The arrest warrant affidavit claimed "a reasonable person would conclude [his post] could lead to serious bodily injury, or death of multiple people." From a meme. Perry County just settled for $835,000, according to Just The News.
Bushart, understandably, had something to say about it: "I am pleased my First Amendment rights have been vindicated. The people's freedom to participate in civil discourse is crucial to a healthy democracy." The man sat in a cell for over a month because a sheriff got his feelings hurt, and he's still more measured than half the people on Twitter.
Adam Steinbaugh, a senior attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, put it more bluntly: "No one should be hauled off to jail in the dark of night over a harmless meme just because the authorities disagree with its message." You'd think that wouldn't need to be said in America. And yet.
The meme-settlement bonanza doesn't stop there. The Trump administration paid $150,000 to settle with former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson, who had been pressured off Twitter at the urging of the Biden administration, Pfizer chairman Albert Bourla, and former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb, who sits on Pfizer's board. Berenson's case against Pfizer continues.
Then there's Austin Peay State University in Tennessee, which coughed up $500,000 to professor Darren Michael after punishing him for his online speech. And Tennessee state employee Monica Meeks is still fighting her own case after Commerce and Insurance Commissioner Carter Lawrence went after her "for bringing the State into disrepute" through her "bias and disregard" toward constituents. Fired for having opinions. Classic.
Meanwhile, California and Minnesota have their own deepfake and meme-related speech laws that are getting challenged in court, with a Minnesota case currently before the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression is also fighting a case against the Charlotte-Mecklenberg Board of Education in North Carolina, with a response deadline of June 5.
So let's do the math: $118,237.47 plus $835,000 plus $150,000 plus $500,000 — that's over $1.6 million in taxpayer money spent because government officials couldn't handle a joke. And the lawsuits keep coming.
The lesson here is simple. You can jail a man for a meme, but eventually a judge is going to make you pay for it — with someone else's money, of course. These bureaucrats never learn, because the consequences never come out of their own pockets.
