PropertyValue
?:author
?:datePublished
  • 2018-07-03 (xsd:date)
?:headline
  • Did Senate Democrats Call for Supreme Court Nominees to Ignore the U.S. Constitution? (en)
?:inLanguage
?:itemReviewed
?:mentions
?:reviewBody
  • Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced in June 2018 that he would be retiring from the nation's highest court at the end of July, prompting speculation about his likely replacement and no small measure of intrigue about the circumstances surrounding his departure. The satirical Babylon Bee web site published an article, intended to be humorous, that posited a number of leading Democrats in the U.S. Senate calling for Supreme Court nominees to end their attachment to the U.S. Constitution. The article, bearing the headline Senate Democrats Demand Supreme Court Nominee Not Be Unduly Influenced by U.S. Constitution, began as follows: Of course, Senators Schumer, Warren, and Booker did not make the statements attributed to them in the article, which was satirical in nature. Nonetheless, after the Babylon Bee article was published, someone worked its headline and the three (fake) quotations from Democratic Senators into meme form, along with additional critical commentary: It's not clear who created this meme, but it was provided with greater online reach after it was posted to Facebook by David Clarke, the former Sheriff of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump. In an edited Facebook post, Clarke later acknowledged that the quotations were made up from the Babylon Bee and apologized for what he called the glaring omission of failing to mention (at first) that the underlying source was satirical. Inevitably, the meme and the fake quotations it contained were taken seriously by some viewers, who posted criticisms of Schumer, Warren, and Booker in response to Clarke's post. (en)
?:reviewRating
rdf:type
?:url