What is Short Circuit?
Short Circuit is your concise (and sometimes irreverent) source for important and interesting cases and legal stories you might otherwise have missed.
Launched by the Institute for Justice (IJ) in 2015, Short Circuit started off as a short weekly newsletter rounding up the most interesting developments in the federal circuit courts of appeal as well as a weekly podcast digging into a couple recent particularly noteworthy cases.
Today, as part of IJ’s Center for Judicial Engagement, and with the newsletter and flagship podcast still going strong, Short Circuit also includes our legal history documentary podcast Bound By Oath, now in its fourth season, and our monthly roundtable podcast Unpublished Opinions. We also hold live shows (contact us if you’re interested in hosting one) and other events. Wherever and whoever you are there’s plenty of options to get engaged.
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Bound By Oath
Oath or Affirmation. (And Treason.) | Season 4, Ep. 3
On this episode, we recover a lost part of the Fourth Amendment that the Supreme Court essentially erased in 1960. In the case of Jones […]
Listen NowShort Circuit
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 […]
Listen NowUnpublished Opinions
Unpublished Opinions 26 | The Batman Approach
John Wrench is joined by Kirby West and Josh Windham to discuss some of the major threats to liberty, including warrantless mass surveillance, the facial/as-applied […]
Listen NowRecent Newsletters
Prosecutor professional misconduct, detention without bond, wanton statch interpretation.
New case! Last fall, masked, heavily armed CBP agents raided IJ client Leo Feler’s property in Chicago because they saw some construction workers out in front of his home. The agents didn’t have a…



