Babylon Bee Sues New Mexico Over $20,000 AI Satire Disclaimer Law

2 articles · Updated · Fox News · Aug 11

The Babylon Bee on Tuesday filed a pre-enforcement lawsuit seeking to block New Mexico’s HB 182, which requires prominent AI disclaimers on certain political parody, satire and other allegedly deceptive campaign media.
HB 182 allows fines of up to $1,000 per violation and $20,000 total, and the Bee argues the warning label is compelled speech that “spoils the joke” and chills planned AI-generated election satire.
The complaint targets the seven members of the New Mexico Ethics Commission, while also arguing the law is content-based because news stories and editorials are exempt but satire, cartoons and memes are not.
New Mexico’s own officials had raised doubts: Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said parts of the 2024 law were ambiguous, and Attorney General Raúl Torrez said in a July 2025 opinion that applying it to satire was likely unconstitutional.
The Ethics Commission called the suit baseless and said it has never enforced the provision against parody, as the Bee and Alliance Defending Freedom point to similar wins overturning Hawaii and California laws.