Justice-Denied · Editorial cartoons
Cartoon 5 of 26
House Rules
Satire. Dialogue is imagined; the underlying rulings and records are linked below.
Read cartoon text
Panel 1: SUMMARY JUDGMENT
A paper contestant labeled JUDGE MILLER’S ORDER presents a HOUSE RULES card reading DON’T DECIDE FACT DISPUTES to the tuxedoed gavel host.
Judge Miller’s Order: These are the rules.
Panel 2: THE CLUE
A blue clue screen reads: The intent is disputed. Two cards below read DENIAL OF INTENT and OPPOSITE INFERENCE.
Panel 3: BUZZ IN
JUDGE MILLER’S ORDER stands on the HOUSE RULES card reading DON’T DECIDE FACT DISPUTES, reaching a lever labeled OPPOSITE INFERENCE beside a red buzzer. The gavel host watches.
Judge Miller’s Order: What is using the opposite inference?
Panel 4: THE MISSING PRINCIPLE
JUDGE MILLER’S ORDER stands on the HOUSE RULES card reading DON’T DECIDE FACT DISPUTES. The gavel host points beneath the paper’s foot.
Judge Miller’s Order: No principled line.
Gavel host: Under your foot.
Artwork caption: Imagined game-show dialogue. Sources on the cartoon page.
Behind the cartoon
The rule appears in Judge Miller’s own order: identify genuine factual disputes rather than decide them. The cartoon turns that principle into a card the order stands on to reach an opposite inference about intent. When it later says there is no principled line, the host points beneath its shoe—a literal picture of Justice-Denied’s criticism of the decision’s method.
Underlying records
- June 16, 2023 order, Doc. 429 — summary judgment and disputed intent excerpts (PDF)Selected original p. 13 summary-judgment standard and p. 24 denial/competing inference are on excerpt PDF p. 1. The p. 24 substantial-truth/interpretation rule and p. 25 innocent-intent alternative and disposition are on excerpt PDF p. 2.
- June 16, 2023 order, Doc. 429 — contact chronology and emotional-distress analysis excerpts (PDF)Selected original pp. 30–31 completed “principled line” paragraph, on excerpt PDF p. 3. This passage belongs to the separate emotional-distress analysis.
- Minnesota Rule of Civil Procedure 56 — official ruleRule 56.01: no genuine issue of material fact and entitlement to judgment as a matter of law; Rule 56.03(a), (c): record support and materials considered.
- DLH, Inc. v. Russ, 566 N.W.2d 60 (Minn. 1997)566 N.W.2d at 69–71, especially p. 70: courts identify genuine fact issues rather than decide facts or weigh evidence; evidence must be sufficiently probative to allow reasonable people to differ.
The principled-line phrase comes from the order’s separate emotional-distress analysis on pp. 30–31. Its theft discussion on pp. 24–25 also relies on substantial truth and protected interpretation, including an alternative assuming innocent intent. The cartoon presents Justice-Denied’s criticism of that reasoning against the summary-judgment principles stated on p. 13. Scenes and dialogue are imagined.
More record detail
Stevenson v. Stevenson, 56-CV-20-2928, Doc. 429, June 16, 2023: p. 13 (summary-judgment standard); pp. 24–25 (denial of intent, opposite inference, protected interpretation and alternative assuming innocent intent); pp. 30–31 (principled-line passage in the emotional-distress analysis). Minn. R. Civ. P. 56.01, 56.03; DLH, Inc. v. Russ, 566 N.W.2d 60, 69–71 (Minn. 1997).
