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our legal history documentary podcast Bound By Oath, now in its third season, and our monthly roundtable podcast Unpublished Opinions.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
Everything You Eat, Drink, and Wear | Season 3, Ep. 11

Government officials must obtain a warrant before forcibly entering a home (absent consent or an emergency). That rule goes back to the Founding. But in […]
Listen NowShort Circuit
Short Circuit 368 | Flipping the Bird

Is stretching out one’s middle finger at the police protected by the First Amendment? And whether it is or not, can the police trump up […]
Listen NowUnpublished Opinions
Unpublished Opinions 13 | You’re Yucking My Yum

A flurry of ideas about the state of the law, the universe, and, well, everything. Including, at least, the impeachment of judges, how lawyers educate […]
Listen NowRecent Newsletters

Corner crossing, prison typewriting, and an interview with Webster Bivens.
New on the Unpublished Opinions podcast (which y’all should subscribe to): Impeaching judges, legal media, AI and corpus linguistics, plus golfing dreams. Computer scientist creates an AI-generated image and seeks to have it…