Is political satire outlawed in Ohio? 𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙍𝙤𝙤𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙧 fights for the First Amendment

Blogger D.J. Byrnes says he will appeal harassment conviction for sending an obscene Shrek meme to state lawmaker

Oct 12, 2026

“I’m sorry. I thought this was America,” D.J. Byrnes wrote in the caption of a photo posted at The Rooster this morning.

A Columbus-based blogger who covers state lawmakers and “all of Ohio’s depravity, all the time,” Byrnes said he and his lawyers will appeal a jury’s verdict on Friday convicting him on a telecommunications harassment charge.

The conviction, he argues, violates his First Amendment rights. Byrnes, publisher of The Rooster, reacted to the Lake County case on Substack:

“If I let them get away with it now, they will simply escalate their tactics the next time they see a sliver of an opening,” he wrote, asking readers to stand with him in his fight for press freedom.

*D.J. Byrnes was arrested by state troopers at the Ohio Statehouse following a harassment complaint filed by Sen. Jerry Cirino."*

At the center of the trial is State Sen. Jerry Cirino, who called his local police after Byrnes sent two text messages and an obscene meme to his cell phone in May.

“Cirino, as the state’s fourth-most powerful politician, at least until January, obviously had some friends in high places,” Byrnes wrote this morning. “I remain flummoxed how a cartoon image of a nude Shrek and two text messages—one replying directly to Cirino calling me a ‘moron’—could be treated as a criminal offense.”

SUPPORT THE FIRST AMENDMENT APPEAL D.J. Byrnes is raising funds to cover legal costs for his constitutional appeal in Lake County. You can support his defense fund directly via The Rooster’s Freedom Defense Fund or subscribe to his publication at The Rooster.

Byrnes said he is relying on the generosity of supporters who enabled him to hire “the best First Amendment attorneys in Ohio: J. Michael ‘Godfather’ Murray and William “Billy Bones” Livingston, the latter of whom I quickly came to view as my warhorse for the next 30 years.”