Connecticut Lawyer Admits To Using Racial Slurs To Win His Case

In 1917 Connecticut passed a law that criminalized “ridiculing” any race or religion by one’s “advertisement” as a class D misdemeanor.

It was part of “An Act Concerning Discrimination at Places of Public Accommodation”, which was spurred by the discriminatory commercial practices of the time, i.e. racist business signs like “whites only” or things like “Irishmen not welcome”

The law has rarely been prosecuted, but it resurfaced in 2020 when a Uconn student walked down the street uttering the N word.

The prosecution of the Uconn student in 2020 sparked a larger conversation about the constitutionality of the law.

Many believed the law violated free speech. If “ridiculing” race and religion is a crime then that means comedians like Chis Rock or Sebastian Maniscalco could be arrested for ridiculing their race and heritage when performing at Foxwoods.

But nobody really challenged the law for two reasons. One, it was rarely prosecuted and two, hardly anyone knew it existed.

And even though it was ripe for challenge, any challenger who brought a legal action risked being branded for life as the “guy who challenged the ‘N-Word’ prohibition.”

Then, in 2021, Mario Cerame, of Brignole, Bush and Lewis, decided to challenge it.

Now, I want to make clear in this post I am not disparaging Attorney Cerame or his firm. I think Attorney Cerame probably challenged it to signal his advocacy for the first amendment. In fact, since the outcome of this case Attorney Cerame has been lauded by multiple media outlets as a champion of free speech. (I still think the case was a waste of time but it was his right)

Cerame first initiated the action by seeking declaratory and injunctive relief in district court.

Because he hadn’t been injured by the law, the district court said he had to show that there was a credible threat of prosecution in order for his action to succeed.

If he wanted his case to go anywhere he had to argue that there was a reasonable certainty that he might be prosecuted by this statute because he currently ridicules race and religion.

In order to do that, he admitted, in the most delicate way possible, that he uses racial slurs.

He said he ridicules Americans, Italians (I think he is Italian), Scientologists, and uses racial slurs, and sometimes republishes such speech on the internet.

Cerame played it safe by primarily containing the alleged speech violations to nationalities that he probably aligns with i.e. American and Italian.

He wanted to show that he wasn’t just making things up, so he also threw in Scientologists as his other victims to prove that no race or religion is safe from his ridicule.

Scientologists are already widely regarded as kooks in the public eye because they believe in aliens. If you’re going to admit to ridiculing a religious group, Scientology is a safe target.

His exact words were:

he uses the prohibited speech ‘‘With his closest and dearest friends . . . to express comradery and as part of play,’’ he ‘‘ridicules others on the basis of their race, religion, creed, color, nationality, ordenomination,” and sometimes he does so in open forums or on the Internet; he ridicules or holds up to contempt ‘‘American nationals’’ and persons of Italian heritage; ‘‘in his personal life,’’ he criticizes and ridicules Scientology and religious practices he deems ‘‘harmful to society’’; in advising others on free speech rights, he sometimes uses ‘‘racial slurs or impolite terms for individuals of certain religious denominations’’; and he republishes and adopts as his own, or ally or in video clips, material of comedians ridiculing others ‘‘on the basis of race, religion, creed, color, denomination, or nationality.’’ (Emphasisomitted.)

Mario Cerame v. Edward Lamont,Jr.,Etal. (Sc20755)

The court ended up somewhat sided with Cerame.

They didn’t invalidate the law but they clarified that the statute only applies to commercial speech.

It was a small win for free speech advocates, a tremendous waste of time and money for the unaffected tax payer, and a huge win for people who like to say the N word.

Read the full case here