Join us at this week's meeting of the Philosophy Club virtually or in-person (Auerbach 320) on Wednesday, Nov. 4 from 1 p.m.—2 p.m. to hear from Kevin Skelly as he presents on The Onion’s humorous but serious 2022 Supreme Court Amicus Brief in support of Ohioan satirist Anthony Novak, whose online parody of his local police department’s got him arrested. He sued and it eventually came to the attention of the U.S. Supreme Court.
Recognizing our right to freedom of speech as an indelible part of our sacred democratic destiny and noticing the peculiar critical role that humor plays in the vital social criticism that freedom of speech enables and empowers, we find it shocking but almost expected for the worst of our leadership to go after the best of our humorists. In this case, humor has injected itself into our legal processes in defense of one of its own. Do not miss this one!
A longtime Philosophy Club member and presenter, Kevin is the brother of University Philosophy professor Brian Skelly and the father of former University Civil Engineering instructor Matthew Skelly. He is a retired Information Technology Specialist at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and now enjoys cooking, traveling, making music with friends, and being a loving nonno to seven grandchildren.
See two attachments: the brief and the notes for this presentation.
Questions? Contact Brian Skelly at bskelly@hartford.edu or 413-273-2273
An ongoing weekly tradition at the University since 2001, the University of Hartford Philosophy Club is a place where students, professors, and people from the community at large meet as peers. Sometimes presentations are given, followed by discussion. Other times, topics are hashed out by the whole group.
Presenters may be students, professors, or people from the community. Anyone can offer to present a topic. The mode of presentation may be as formal or informal as the presenter chooses.
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