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our legal history documentary podcast Bound By Oath, now in its fourth season, and our monthly roundtable podcast Unpublished Opinions.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
Needless Friction. And Treason.
On this episode: the story of Pullman abstention, the first of several abstention doctrines the Supreme Court invented to let federal judges decline to decide […]
Listen NowShort Circuit
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 […]
Listen NowUnpublished Opinions
Unpublished Opinions 25 | Pulling Up the Ladder
With guest host Patrick Jaicomo, he and IJ’s Anya Bidwell and Diana Simpson conspire on how best to keep the competition out of their guild. […]
Listen NowRecent Newsletters
Rum, time travel, and inappropriate trophies.
New on the Short Circuit podcast: Lawyers and bond hearings in the wrong order, plus, in #12Months12Circuits, we hit the Sixth. Puerto Rico went through a special sort of bankruptcy to sort out its…



