California agrees it can't punish satirical website Babylon Bee for election memes, parodies

California agreed it could not legally enforce a law (AB 2839) against "materially deceptive" political content, including memes and parodies of elected officials, by the Christian conservative satire site The Babylon Bee under a joint stipulation Tuesday with Attorney General Rob Bonta's office.

U.S. District Judge John Mendez already blocked the law, which claims it targets "deepfakes," in a separate legal challenge by "Mr Reagan" Chris Kohls earlier this month, ruling that YouTube videos and social media posts are the "newspaper advertisements and political cartoons of today."

"This case was subsequently transferred to the Eastern District of California and assigned to this Court. All parties have agreed to consolidate this case with Kohls v. Bonta in a separate stipulation filed concurrently with this Court," the filing says. The parties agree the "plain language" of the injunction applies to the Bee and the other plaintiff, law blogger Kelly Rickert.

"The Babylon Bee and Rickert are now free to post their political content online during the current election season without fear of violating the law while the case continues," their lawyers at the Alliance Defending Freedom said Tuesday.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom "has no constitutional authority to act as the humor police," Vice President of Litigation Strategy Jonathan Scruggs said. "While lawmakers act as if posting and resharing memes is a threat to democracy, these laws censor speech California politicians don’t like."

"Our job is hard enough when our jokes keep coming true, as if they were prophecies," CEO Seth Dillon said. "Unfortunately for them, the First Amendment secures our right to tell jokes they don’t like."