Podcasts Archive
Short Circuit 193 | Hamilton Singing Fire in a Crowded Theater
What did Alexander Hamilton tell the Marquis de Lafayette on July 21, 1780? Probably not that his letter would be the subject of a civil […]
Listen NowShort 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 […]
Listen NowShort 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 […]
Listen NowIJ at 30: IJ President Scott Bullock on the Cases and Clients that Changed IJ and the Law (A Deep Dive Best Of)
IJ President Scott Bullock on the Cases and Clients that Changed IJ and the Law (A Deep Dive Best Of)
Before he was IJ’s president, Scott Bullock spent 25 years as an IJ attorney. In this episode, he recounts his years in the trenches as […]
Listen NowShort 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 […]
Listen NowShort 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 […]
Listen NowShort 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, […]
Listen NowClosing the Courthouse Doors | Season 2, Ep. 9
On this episode, we take stock of developments in the courts and in Congress since this season began. There’s an update on the first case […]
Listen NowShort 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 […]
Listen NowWill the Supreme Court overturn its infamous decision letting developers take your property?
From pipelines to private development, the high court is indicating an interest in doing a better job for property owners
Though Susette Kelo’s fight to save her home from her city’s efforts to take it for a private developer ended in 2005, the fight against […]
Listen NowPersons Who Are Not "Persons" | Season 2, Ep. 8
Section 1983 says that “every person” acting under color of state law shall be liable for violating the Constitution. But in 1951, the Supreme Court […]
Listen NowShort 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 […]
Listen NowThese People Lost $85 Million in an L.A. Heist…and the Robber was the FBI
How an illegal search and seizure turned into a federal cash grab
In March 2021, FBI agents broke into private safe deposit boxes at the Southern California business U.S. Private Vaults and—though no individual box owner was […]
Listen NowShort 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 […]
Listen NowShort 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 […]
Listen NowShort 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 […]
Listen NowShort 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 […]
Listen NowShort 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 […]
Listen NowShort 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. […]
Listen NowCities Caught Extracting Millions From Residents Through Fines and Fees Traps
In Episode 30 of Deep Dive, we talked about how fines for harmless property code violations could snowball into six-figure debt. All too often, municipalities […]
Listen NowShort 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 […]
Listen NowSupreme Court Shuts Down Police on Entering Your Home Without a Warrant
The government argued that if police aren’t investigating a crime, they should be able to access your property
This term, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion in Caniglia v. Strom, a case about the “community caretaking” exception to the general principle […]
Listen NowThe Shooting of Bobby Moore — Part 2 | Season 2, Ep. 7
In 1978, the Supreme Court held that individuals can sue local governments for constitutional violations in federal court. Indeed, the Court held that Congress had […]
Listen NowThe Shooting of Bobby Moore — Part 1 | Season 2, Ep. 7
In 2012, Little Rock police officer Josh Hastings shot and killed 15-year-old Bobby Moore and lied about how it happened. Hastings had a long history […]
Listen NowShort 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 […]
Listen NowShort 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 […]
Listen NowShort 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 […]
Listen NowShort 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, […]
Listen NowThis Florida Woman Got a $100,000 Fine for Parking in Her Own Driveway
How Trivial Code Violations Can Lead to Financial Ruin—And How to Fight Back
After Sandy Martinez got a ticket from Lantana, Florida, for parking her car with its wheels slightly outside her driveway and on the grass in […]
Listen NowShort 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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