Hawaii taxpayers just cut a $118,000 check to a comedy website.
Now New Mexico is lining up to make the same mistake.
The Babylon Bee just sued New Mexico officials – and the state already handed its opponents the weapon they needed to win.
New Mexico's AI Disclaimer Law Has a Free Speech Problem Its Own AG Admitted
New Mexico's HB 182 – passed in 2024 – requires AI-generated political content to carry prominent disclaimers identifying it as machine-made.
That sounds reasonable until you read the fine print.
News stories and editorials are fully exempted.
Satire, parody, cartoons, and memes get no such protection.
That means The Babylon Bee – which uses AI-generated imagery to mock politicians – faces fines up to $1,000 per violation, and up to $20,000 in accumulated penalties, for publishing jokes without a government-mandated warning label.
"New Mexico is stuffing words into our mouths, forcing us to say things we wouldn't say otherwise," Babylon Bee CEO Seth Dillon told Fox News Digital.
The legal filing is direct: the mandatory disclaimer "spoils the joke as it begins, each and every time."
New Mexico's own Attorney General Raúl Torrez issued an advisory opinion in July 2025 concluding HB 182's disclaimer requirement on satire and parody was "likely unconstitutional on its face."
Even Democrat Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham admitted portions of the bill were "ambiguous" and could "pose legal issues" when she signed it.
They passed it anyway.
Federal Courts Struck Down the Same First Amendment Violation in California and Hawaii
New Mexico isn't pioneering anything.
California tried to regulate AI-generated political satire with AB 2839. A federal court struck it down, ruling that a "mandatory disclaimer for parody or satire would kill the joke" – and that forcing satirists to add labels constitutes unconstitutional compelled speech that "dilutes their message."
Hawaii tried next with Act 191. A federal judge – a Biden appointee – ruled the law "presumptively invalid" because it "discriminates based on content and speaker" and restricts "constitutionally protected political speech." She entered a permanent injunction blocking enforcement.
Hawaii then declined to appeal and cut The Babylon Bee a check for more than $118,000 in attorneys' fees.
Alliance Defending Freedom counsel Jim Campbell represented the Bee in both prior fights. He's back for New Mexico.
"The government cannot decide which political speech is allowed and which is forbidden," Campbell told Fox News Digital. "Whenever government officials determine what political speech is acceptable, dissent disappears and democracy suffers."
New Mexico Gave the Press a Free Pass and Called Political Satire a Crime
Left-wing state legislatures keep passing laws designed to neutralize conservative satire – dressed up as AI safety measures – and federal courts keep throwing them out.
The Babylon Bee posted a satirical AI-generated travel ad this past week mocking New Mexico and Supreme Court Justice David K. Thomson, who faces voters in November.
In the fake ad, an AI-generated Thomson announces the court rules "against the Second Amendment, the First Amendment or any other amendment that lets people do things."
That's the joke New Mexico wanted labeled.
The First Amendment has protected political satire since before the republic was founded. The Federalist Papers used pseudonyms. Ben Franklin ran hoaxes in his own newspaper. Political cartoonists spent two centuries skewering presidents without filing disclosure paperwork.
Hustler Magazine v. Falwell – decided unanimously by the Supreme Court in 1988 – established that even vicious parody of public figures is protected political speech. The Court has never walked that back.
New Mexico's law hands news organizations a blanket exemption while targeting the outlets that embarrass Democrat politicians with the most effective weapon available: ridicule.
Call it what it is: a censorship regime wearing an AI safety label.
The New Mexico Ethics Commission called the lawsuit "baseless" – and claimed in the same breath that it has never gone after a satirist under HB 182.
Fine. Then repeal the law.
A state that never enforces a statute has nothing to lose by letting a court strike it down permanently. New Mexico is fighting anyway.
That's the answer.
Sources:
- Kristine Parks, "Babylon Bee sues New Mexico officials over law requiring AI disclaimers on political satire," Fox News, August 11, 2026.
- "Babylon Bee sues New Mexico over law requiring AI disclaimers on political satire," Washington Times, August 11, 2026.
- "Hawaii's Deepfake Election Law Violates Free Speech, Court Finds," Bloomberg Law, January 31, 2026.
- "Babylon Bee 1, California 0: Court Strikes Down Law Regulating Election-Related AI Content," American Enterprise Institute, January 20, 2026.
- "Hawaii Backs Down: State Pays $118K After Failed Censorship Attempt," The Gold Report, May 29, 2026.
