Justice-Denied · Editorial cartoons
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Judicial Jeopardy: The Fiction Department
Satire. Dialogue is imagined; the underlying rulings and records are linked below.
Read cartoon text
Panel 1: PLAINTIFFS’ ACCOUNT
A file labeled AT&T CALL-DETAIL RECORDS stands at a quiz-show podium beside a MESSAGES PRODUCED chart with empty boxes. The tuxedoed gavel host listens.
AT&T records: The log shows texts. The production has gaps.
Panel 2: THE CLUE
A blue clue board reads THESE TEXTS APPEAR IN THE PHONE RECORDS BUT NOT IN THE MESSAGES PRODUCED.
Panel 3: BUZZ IN
MILLER’S ORDER presses a red buzzer at a podium labeled SANCTIONS WARNING.
Miller’s Order: What is “fictional” information?
Panel 4: THE FICTION DEPARTMENT
The gavel host points toward AT&T CALL-DETAIL RECORDS beneath a floating question mark. The MESSAGES PRODUCED chart retains empty gaps, and MILLER’S ORDER stands at a second podium.
Gavel host: When did AT&T open a fiction department?
Artwork caption: Imagined game-show dialogue. Sources on the cartoon page.
Behind the cartoon
Sworn declarations filed before the discovery ruling compared carrier entries with produced messages and identified gaps. This imagined quiz makes that mismatch the clue. Miller’s Order answers with fictional information, echoing its warning about further discovery requests. The host’s fiction-department question turns the response to a record-based inquiry into the punchline.
Underlying records
- September 23, 2021 declarations, Docs. 116, 119 and 122 - source and comparison excerpts (PDF)Each declaration’s selected original p. 1, paragraphs 2-4, and p. 9, paragraph 13 and oath. Doc. 116 is on excerpt PDF p. 1; Doc. 119 on p. 2; Doc. 122 on p. 3. Detailed tables and signatures are omitted. These are sworn declarations describing the summaries, rather than the underlying carrier records.
- December 21, 2021 order, Doc. 154 (PDF)Original/PDF pp. 16–18: paragraphs 7(g) and 7(h)(i) on plaintiffs’ beliefs and assertions, and paragraph 7(k) on further requests for privileged or fictional information and possible sanctions.
Docs. 116, 119, and 122, filed September 23, 2021, summarize AT&T/Verizon records and compare logged texts with production (¶¶ 3–4, 6). Doc. 154 later rejects plaintiffs’ discovery concerns and warns about further requests for “privileged or fictional” information. The satire targets that response to a record-based inquiry. Carrier activity identifies exchanges; message contents require separate evidence.
More record detail
Stevenson v. Stevenson, 56-CV-20-2928: Docs. 116, 119 and 122, September 23, 2021, p. 1, paragraphs 2–4 (motions and carrier-derived comparison); pp. 2–8, paragraphs 6–10 (communication tables); p. 9, paragraph 13 (source documents available to parties and for filing on request under Rule 1006). Doc. 154, December 21, 2021, pp. 16–18, paragraphs 7(g), 7(h)(i) and 7(k) (discovery concerns and possible sanctions for further requests for privileged or fictional information).
