Amanda McGonigle runs @CatsOnACouch, an Instagram account with nearly 2 million followers built around cat photos, mutual aid fundraising, and unvarnished mockery of JD Vance. On May 26, she registered for a publicly advertised event in Bangor, Maine featuring the vice president. She received email confirmation. She traveled to Bangor. She stood in line.

Then Secret Service officers singled her out by name.

"We know where you stand," they told her. When she pointed out that it was a cat account, they informed her the event was "private" and turned her away, despite her confirmed registration.

Political satire has been protected in this country since before the Constitution was ratified. Cartoonists, comedians, and everyday citizens have mocked people in power for centuries, and the government cannot punish them for it. Excluding a citizen from a publicly advertised government event because she posts cat memes critical of a sitting vice president is not a security decision. It is viewpoint discrimination. It is retaliation. And it is unconstitutional.

The ACLU has filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Maine. We stand behind that effort. But Congress and the Department of Justice must also act: investigate how Secret Service resources are being used to screen out political critics, and establish clear written policy that publicly advertised government events cannot exclude citizens based on their political views.

The right to mock the powerful is not a privilege. It is the point.