October 08, 2021

Short Circuit 192 | Standing Up for a Dollar

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 […]

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October 01, 2021

Short Circuit 191: Judicial Activism for Reals

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 […]

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September 23, 2021

Short Circuit 190: A Crime a Day in Prison

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 […]

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September 17, 2021

Short Circuit 189 | Supreme Court Preview, OT 2021

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 […]

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September 02, 2021

Short Circuit 188 | Chalked Tires and the Other ACA

Ever rolled your tires to try and cover up the meter maid’s chalk mark? No, me neither . . . But even if you haven’t, […]

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August 26, 2021

Short Circuit 187 | How Binding Is Your Dicta?

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 […]

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August 12, 2021

Short Circuit 186 | Chillin’ With Uber

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 […]

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August 05, 2021

Short Circuit 185 | Guns and Football

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 […]

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July 28, 2021

Short Circuit 184 | California Constitutional Dreaming

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 […]

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July 23, 2021

Short Circuit 183 | Expectations of Surveillance

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 […]

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July 15, 2021

Short Circuit 182 | Putting the Protection in “Equal Protection”

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 […]

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July 08, 2021

Short Circuit 181 | Mandatory Associations

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 […]

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July 02, 2021

Short Circuit 180 | A Fifth of Qualified Immunity

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. […]

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June 24, 2021

Short Circuit 179 | Taking Bees with the Police Power

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 […]

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June 17, 2021

Short Circuit 178 | First Amendment Home Design

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 […]

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June 11, 2021

Short Circuit 177 | When Are Judges “Too Cool?”

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 […]

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June 04, 2021

Short Circuit 176 | Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?

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 […]

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May 28, 2021

Short Circuit 175 | Tax Takings and Reservation Creation

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, […]

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May 21, 2021

Short Circuit 174 | The Right to “Bear” Arms

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 […]

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May 13, 2021

Short Circuit 173 | Public Accommodations and High Speed Snaps

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. […]

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April 30, 2021

Short Circuit 172 | Confronting Cook County Corruption

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 […]

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April 22, 2021

Short Circuit 171 | Should Originalists Party Like It’s 1868, not 1791?

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 […]

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April 15, 2021

Short Circuit 170 | A Hot Mess and Seven Magic Words

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 […]

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April 09, 2021

Short Circuit 169 | The Duct Tape of Federal Law

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 […]

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April 01, 2021

Short Circuit 168 | Suspicious Handshakes and Football Prayers

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 […]

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March 26, 2021

Short Circuit 167 | Section 230 and a Drones Search

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 […]

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March 18, 2021

Short Circuit 166 | To En Banc or Not to En Banc

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 […]

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March 09, 2021

Short Circuit 165 | Orphaned Precedent

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 […]

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March 03, 2021

Short Circuit 164 | Bad Cop Records and Suspicionless Searches

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. […]

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February 19, 2021

Short Circuit 163 | The Law of Johnny 5 Is Alive

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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