Americans have been roasting their politicians since before the Constitution was ratified. Benjamin Franklin published entire satirical essays under fake names just to needle the powerful. That tradition — sharp, irreverent, and deeply American — has survived every era of political turmoil for nearly 250 years. Nobody ever needed a government permission slip to tell a political joke.

Until now, apparently. A handful of state legislatures have stumbled onto a shiny new excuse to police political speech: artificial intelligence regulation. Wrap your censorship in enough tech jargon and “voter protection” language, and you can smuggle just about any speech restriction past the public. At least, that seems to be the theory.

From The Post Millennial:

The Babylon Bee has filed a federal lawsuit challenging a New Mexico law requiring government-mandated disclaimers on AI-generated political satire, despite the state’s own attorney general previously concluding that the provision targeting satire and parody is likely unconstitutional.

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) attorneys filed the lawsuit Tuesday in the US District Court for the District of New Mexico on behalf of the satire outlet, challenging provisions of HB 182, a 2024 law regulating what the state calls “materially deceptive media.”

A state legislature in the United States of America passed a law slapping government-approved warning labels on political humor. That should alarm every American who has ever glanced at the Bill of Rights. New Mexico’s HB 182 makes it a civil offense to create or share AI-generated political content — satire and parody included — without attaching state-mandated disclaimers. Fines run up to $1,000 per violation, capped at $20,000. And these restrictions don’t just kick in during election season. They apply every single day of the year.

A law even its authors won’t defend

The disclaimer requirements are almost satirical in their own right. Images must carry “easily readable” warnings. Videos must display the disclaimer for their entire duration. Audio? A spoken warning at the beginning, at the end, and — I’m not exaggerating — every two minutes in between.

As the Bee’s legal complaint observes: “HB 182 spoils the joke as it begins, each and every time.”

Here’s the real kicker, though. New Mexico’s own officials recognized this law was constitutionally rotten before the governor’s pen hit the paper. Democrat Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham acknowledged “ambiguous” language and potential “legal issues” when she signed it in March 2024. Then in July 2025, state Attorney General Raúl Torrez — also a Democrat — issued an advisory opinion concluding that applying disclaimer mandates to satire and parody is “likely unconstitutional on its face.”

The law remains on the books anyway. The State Ethics Commission has never disavowed enforcement. So the threat just hangs there, doing its chilling work.

The government wants to script your speech

The constitutional rot runs deeper than obnoxious paperwork. This is compelled speech, plain and simple — the state forcing citizens to parrot government-approved language as a prerequisite for engaging in political discourse.

Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon was blunt: “New Mexico is stuffing words into our mouths, forcing us to say things we wouldn’t say otherwise.” He also made clear he has no intention of backing down. If a joke is likely to violate the law, he’ll tell it anyway — “because we have a right to, and we refuse to do the tyrant’s work for him.”

The lawsuit highlights a specific Bee video called “Visit New Mexico: A Democrat Untopia.” It’s a satirical tourism ad featuring an AI-generated version of state Supreme Court Justice David K. Thomson — who appears on the November 2026 ballot — cheerfully announcing rulings against the Bill of Rights. Under HB 182, that video would need to be buried under a massive disclaimer warning viewers it was “manipulated or generated by artificial intelligence.” Comedy, meet compliance department.

Memes get regulated. Legacy media walks free.

Then there’s the favoritism baked right into the statute. HB 182 explicitly exempts “news stories” and “editorials” from its disclaimer requirements. Satire, parody, political cartoons, and memes? No such luck. The government has literally codified a system where legacy media outlets operate freely while independent voices and humorists submit to state-mandated speech controls.

ADF Chief Legal Counsel Jim Campbell put it squarely: “The government cannot decide which political speech is allowed and which is forbidden. Whenever government officials determine what political speech is acceptable, dissent disappears and democracy suffers.”

Worth noting: ADF has already successfully challenged similar AI speech restrictions in both California and Hawaii. New Mexico looks poised to join that losing streak.

The punch line writes itself

The Founders didn’t just tolerate political satire. They wielded it like a weapon against tyranny. They understood something that a few modern state legislators apparently forgot: when a government starts dictating the terms of political humor, it’s telling you exactly how much it fears accountability. The Babylon Bee’s lawsuit isn’t really about protecting comedy. It’s about defending every American’s right to mock the powerful without first submitting to a bureaucratic approval process.

No government — in any state, under any party — gets to pre-approve your punch line.

Key Takeaways

• The Babylon Bee is suing New Mexico over a law forcing government disclaimers onto political satire.
• New Mexico’s own attorney general admitted the satire provision is likely unconstitutional.
• The law exempts news outlets but restricts memes, parody, and cartoons — government picking winners.
• Alliance Defending Freedom has already defeated similar speech laws in California and Hawaii.

Sources: The Post Millennial