October 08, 2021
Short Circuit 192 | Standing Up for a Dollar
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It’s taken five years, but the clients of IJ senior attorney Paul Avelar can now finally get their day in court thanks to a ruling […]
Listen NowOctober 01, 2021
Short Circuit 191: Judicial Activism for Reals
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Frustrated with the deeply complicated issue of homelessness on Los Angeles’s skid row, a district court took the law into its own hands and ordered […]
Listen NowSeptember 23, 2021
Short Circuit 190: A Crime a Day in Prison
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Mike Chase, author of “How to Become a Federal Criminal” and the man behind the @CrimeADay Twitter account, joins us to lay out the Eighth […]
Listen NowSeptember 17, 2021
Short Circuit 189 | Supreme Court Preview, OT 2021
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For the fifth year in a row the Center for Judicial Engagement travels to the University of North Carolina School of Law to preview the […]
Listen NowSeptember 02, 2021
Short Circuit 188 | Chalked Tires and the Other ACA
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Ever rolled your tires to try and cover up the meter maid’s chalk mark? No, me neither . . . But even if you haven’t, […]
Listen NowAugust 26, 2021
Short Circuit 187 | How Binding Is Your Dicta?
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The Third Circuit allowed a Second Amendment case challenging Robinson Township’s new zoning ordinance to proceed. Did they town change their zoning laws just to […]
Listen NowAugust 12, 2021
Short Circuit 186 | Chillin’ With Uber
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Usually a “chill” on your freedom of speech is the easiest constitutional injury to prove. But in the Tenth Circuit it seems if you speak […]
Listen NowAugust 05, 2021
Short Circuit 185 | Guns and Football
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More on two of America’s favorite subjects this week. Josh House rejoins us as we analyze six separate opinions about one football coach. Josh last […]
Listen NowJuly 28, 2021
Short Circuit 184 | California Constitutional Dreaming
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On a special Short Circuit we look at the Constitution, and the constitutional history, of the Golden State. With two state constitutions and conventions in […]
Listen NowJuly 23, 2021
Short Circuit 183 | Expectations of Surveillance
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The Supreme Court has said a “search” occurs when the police invade your “reasonable expectation of privacy.” So what is a “reasonable expectation” to be […]
Listen NowJuly 15, 2021
Short Circuit 182 | Putting the Protection in “Equal Protection”
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Today we think of the Equal Protection Clause as requiring equal treatment of the laws. But in addition to anything else it covers, at its […]
Listen NowJuly 08, 2021
Short Circuit 181 | Mandatory Associations
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It’s not often that we get three different appellate opinions on the same issue in one week. But recently the Fifth Circuit (twice) and the […]
Listen NowJuly 02, 2021
Short Circuit 180 | A Fifth of Qualified Immunity
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The Fifth Circuit is not boring. In just one week they served up enough qualified immunity cases to fill an entire episode, and then some. […]
Listen NowJune 24, 2021
Short Circuit 179 | Taking Bees with the Police Power
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Something that is not the bee’s knees is when the county mosquito sprayers forget to tell you to cover up your bees so they don’t […]
Listen NowJune 17, 2021
Short Circuit 178 | First Amendment Home Design
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If I express myself through designing a new house, is that expression protected by the First Amendment? Last week the Eleventh Circuit avoided that question […]
Listen NowJune 11, 2021
Short Circuit 177 | When Are Judges “Too Cool?”
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How many pop culture references can a judge make in an opinion before we start to cringe? “Dean” of #AppellateTwitter Raffi Melkonian joins us to […]
Listen NowJune 04, 2021
Short Circuit 176 | Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?
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There’s this mysterious word in English that courts love to talk about, the Notorious A-N-D. Does it, in fact, mean “and?” Or does it mean […]
Listen NowMay 28, 2021
Short Circuit 175 | Tax Takings and Reservation Creation
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Can the county foreclose on your house because you haven’t paid your taxes, and then just keep the rest of your equity? In Ohio, yeah, […]
Listen NowMay 21, 2021
Short Circuit 174 | The Right to “Bear” Arms
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Second Amendment scholar David Kopel sits down with us to set the stage for a big issue we’ll hear a lot about over the next […]
Listen NowMay 13, 2021
Short Circuit 173 | Public Accommodations and High Speed Snaps
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Legal raconteur and writer David Lat joins us for some underneath-their-robes hijinks. David talks a bit about his new venture and his battle with COVID-19. […]
Listen NowApril 30, 2021
Short Circuit 172 | Confronting Cook County Corruption
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What does Sir Walter Raleigh have to do with a Tennessee murder trial? You’ll learn from Rob Johnson, as he confronts his witness with a […]
Listen NowApril 22, 2021
Short Circuit 171 | Should Originalists Party Like It’s 1868, not 1791?
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On a special Short Circuit, professors Christopher Green and Evan Bernick join your host Anthony Sanders to examine one of the great questions of the […]
Listen NowApril 15, 2021
Short Circuit 170 | A Hot Mess and Seven Magic Words
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What can a court say in 325 pages? So much that we don’t have much of a clue. Diana Simpson slices and dices the Fifth […]
Listen NowApril 09, 2021
Short Circuit 169 | The Duct Tape of Federal Law
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If you’re not a major party candidate it can be really hard to get on the ballot. So hard it’s sometimes unconstitutional. Paul Sherman explains […]
Listen NowApril 01, 2021
Short Circuit 168 | Suspicious Handshakes and Football Prayers
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Can the police stop and frisk your person based on their “training and experience?” Not if that training and experience is simply that drug dealers […]
Listen NowMarch 26, 2021
Short Circuit 167 | Section 230 and a Drones Search
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We get a little high-tech this week. Techdirt founder Mike Masnick joins us to explain how Section 230 actually works, and how it was somewhat […]
Listen NowMarch 18, 2021
Short Circuit 166 | To En Banc or Not to En Banc
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The 10th Circuit just can’t make up its mind. You might say it doesn’t know a hawk from a handsaw. Listen to a tale from […]
Listen NowMarch 09, 2021
Short Circuit 165 | Orphaned Precedent
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How much power does the CDC have during the pandemic? Surprisingly, that was not the issue before a district court considering the constitutionality of the […]
Listen NowMarch 03, 2021
Short Circuit 164 | Bad Cop Records and Suspicionless Searches
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New York police disciplinary records were a black box, until the state changed the law. Then the union sued to keep the lid on—but lost. […]
Listen NowFebruary 19, 2021
Short Circuit 163 | The Law of Johnny 5 Is Alive
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For once living up to the 1980s-movie-sense of our name, we’re talking about robots. How should the law treat robots? What do we analogize to, […]
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