Justice-Denied · Editorial cartoons
Cartoon 9 of 26
The Missing Link
Satire. Dialogue is imagined; the underlying rulings and records are linked below.
Read cartoon text
Title: The Missing Link
Panel 1: MILLER'S ELIMINATION ROUND
A dramatic elimination-quiz show with a dark teal stage, burgundy lights and round contestant lecterns, no real TV logos. Black-robed host Judge Miller has a podium nameplate "JUDGE MILLER" and is about to press a red "WAIVED" button. A dignified personified closed recording case at a contestant lectern is labeled "PRIVILEGE CLAIMED". No video contents are shown.
Judge Miller: You are the weakest link.
Panel 2: THE APPELLATE CHECK
A personified appellate order labeled "COURT OF APPEALS" and "WRIT" steps between Miller and his unpressed "WAIVED" button. It holds up three large chain links in a simple horizontal diagram: left label "OBSERVATIONS", a clearly BROKEN MISSING center link with a question card "DISCLOSURE IDENTIFIED?", and right label "WAIVER". The central gap is unmistakable and the recording contestant remains safely closed.
Appellate order: The weak link is your waiver analysis.
Footer:
SATIRE - IMAGINED SCENES AND DIALOGUE
In re Stevenson, A23-0077, Feb. 21, 2023, pp. 6-8. Sources in review guide.
Behind the cartoon
A game-show host calls privilege the weak link. The appellate order points to the gap in his waiver analysis.
Underlying records
- Official appellate order — In re Stevenson, A23-0077February 21, 2023, A23-0077. p. 7: no identified voluntarily disclosed privileged communication and no analysis of waiver scope; p. 8: operative writ and remaining questions.
- Judge Miller's December 6, 2022 order — Doc. 366Spousal-privilege discussion, printed pp. 35–38; production directive, p. 56.
- Minnesota marital privilege statute — 2022 versionMinn. Stat. § 595.02, subd. 1(a).
- Related first-person account — Piercing Spousal PrivilegeMarie’s account; section “The Court of Appeals Stopped It—And Explained Why”.
Judge Miller's December 6, 2022 order required production of the May 27, 2019 home-security recording, assuming privilege and finding waiver. The February 21, 2023 Court of Appeals writ prohibited enforcement of that production directive because its waiver analysis was incorrect: nonprivileged observations did not themselves waive confidential marital communications, and no voluntarily disclosed privileged communication or scope of waiver had been identified. The court left the recording's actual privilege status and any properly supported waiver for further proceedings. The cartoon's scenes and dialogue are imagined satire about that reasoning.
More record detail
In re Craig Stevenson, et al., A23-0077, special-term order signed February 21, 2023 (district court record Doc. 392), pp. 4–8, particularly waiver analysis pp. 6–7 and operative writ/scope p. 8; underlying case 56-CV-20-2928. December 6, 2022 district court order, Doc. 366, printed/PDF pp. 35–38, production directive p. 56. Minn. Stat. § 595.02, subd. 1(a) (2022).
