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our legal history documentary podcast Bound By Oath, now in its third season, and our monthly roundtable podcast Unpublished Opinions.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
Neat Takings Tricks | Season 3, Ep. 13

The Fifth Amendment says that the government must pay just compensation when it takes private property for public use, a command that, regrettably, is often […]
Listen NowShort Circuit
Short Circuit 380 | Homicide by Bath

Is making someone file a form “in the public interest”? The Fifth Circuit took a look at that age-old question in a recent case regarding […]
Listen NowUnpublished Opinions
Unpublished Opinions 15 | The Oz Machine

Done with oral argument at SCOTUS in Martin v. United States, Patrick Jaicomo and Anya Bidwell rejoin the rotation to yell at clouds and, along […]
Listen NowRecent Newsletters

Discretionary lawn care, Agent Orange, and banished from South Georgia.
Victory! Yesterday, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of an innocent Atlanta family, represented by IJ, whose home was mistakenly raided by an FBI SWAT team. The Court undismissed all five of the family’s…