Short Circuit

Short Circuit 450 | Cocaine in the Curtilage

If you’ve ever seen the 1971 flick “The French Connection” you may know a bit about hiding illegal drugs inside the bodies of cars. Someone else had the same background k

Short Circuit 449 | Supreme Court Preview

Our annual Supreme Court term preview, this year from Wake Forest Law and released today, First Monday, the first day of the Supreme Court’s new term. IJ’s Justin Pearson

Short Circuit 448 | Are Prediction Markets Legal?

We’ve all seen the ads for prediction markets, like Kalshi, and some of us have even placed bets with them. But are they actually “bets”? That is, are they gambling? The

Short Circuit 447 | How Constitutional Are Your Claims?

We focus on a district court case that has appellate court explanatory power. As our special guest Professor Robert Steinbuch says, if you reside in Arkansas you must be

Short Circuit 446 | SWAT Teams at the Supreme Court

Say a gaggle of police with military-grade toys fire a boatload of tear gas into a home and then run in and break a bunch of stuff, all the while looking for a fugitive w

Short Circuit 445 | Crazytown

Time for The Big One. So many have so many takes on the Ninth Circuit that, as part of our #12Months12Circuits series, we at IJ had to add our own. It’s the mega-circuit

Short Circuit 444 | Recording the Police with Facebook Immunity

Another circuit recognizes a there’s a First Amendment right to record the police. In this case, a “First Amendment auditor” stood on a public sidewalk and recorded the o

Short Circuit 443 | Irreparable Speech Harms

In our #12Months12Circuits series a nation turns its lonely eyes to the heartland. The true middle of America. The Eighth Circuit. We’re joined by true Eighth Circuit exp

Short Circuit 442 | Free Speech Died Here, Ask Me How

Tragedy and comedy, from the Fifth Circuit and then from the Tenth. First, Patrick Jaicomo of IJ describes how the police in Laredo, Texas mistakenly shot an innocent man

Short Circuit 441 | Rights for Listeners

We often hear of the right to speak. But what about the right to listen? The Ninth Circuit just reaffirmed that listeners have First Amendment rights too and that, like s

Short Circuit 440 | The Mystery of Academic Freedom

Florida, man. Always fun when we touch base with the latest culture war issues in the Sunshine State. Which usually means we’re talking about the Eleventh Circuit. Which

Short Circuit 439 | Adams, Jefferson, and The Declaration

Tim Sandefur joins us to discuss his latest (and tenth!) book “Proclaiming Liberty,” all about the Declaration of Independence, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, and a who

Short Circuit 438 | The Strike Zone for Ultra Vires

If you like stories of co-workers showing up at your door at night and threatening you and your family then we have the episode for you. This happened to a federal employ

Short Circuit 437 | Privately Racing the Nondelegation Doctrine

An old friend rejoins the show, the Horseracing Integrity and Safety Act of 2020. It’s been trotting around the federal courts of appeals for a few years now, truing to o

Short Circuit 436 | Retaliatory Justice

If you like the drama of local politics you’ll love this story, told by IJ’s Christian Lansinger, from the Sixth Circuit. A colorful and controversial elected official wa

Short Circuit 435 | 1776 and Judicial Review

Happy America’s 250th! To celebrate, we’re doing things the IJ Way, tying in the events of 1776 to something that emerged a few years later and that we at IJ work with ev

Short Circuit 434 | The Police Are the Emergency

If someone sues you for money you get to defend yourself in court. Right? Not really if you sign a confession of judgment, a contract where you waive defenses to a later

Short Circuit 433 | Bond Hearing Without Lawyer

After an arrest, is the decision on whether a defendant can get out on bond while their prosecution proceeds a “critical stage’? In the Eighth Circuit it’s hard to know b

Short Circuit 432 | Moth-Eaten Precedent

A wild, and tragic, story from the Fifth Circuit with a bit of good (yet confusing) news at the end. IJ’s Diana Simpson tells us of a woman who feared her ex-boyfriend wa

Short Circuit 431 | Hard but not Impossible

We welcome back a treasured many-times guest, the first time since he’s left IJ. Brian Morris served in our merry band of libertarian litigators for many years before rec