Short Circuit 180 | A Fifth of Qualified Immunity
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
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. Nicolas Riley of Georgetown’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection joins us to discuss a case he litigated where the circuit failed to apply the Fourth Amendment to some rather un-Fourth Amendment friendly behavior by school officials. IJ’s Anya Bidwell then sends us in the other direction where the circuit denied qualified immunity to a pair of paramedics who refused to help a prisoner, and we discuss whether the Supreme Court’s recent tea leaves pushed it in that direction. Finally, we take apart an en banc denial where a majority of the circuit most definitely is not reading those tea leaves—although Judge Willet may be in the form of a telegraph message.
Transcript: https://ij.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/short-circuit-180.pdf
J.W. v. Paley, http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/unpub/19/19-20429.0.pdf
Kelson v. Clark, http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/20/20-10764-CV0.pdf
Ramirez v. Guadarrama, https://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/pub/20/20-10055-CV0.pdf
Taylor v. Riojas, https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/20pdf/19-1261_bq7c.pdf
Nicolas Riley, https://www.law.georgetown.edu/icap/our-team/
Anya Bidwell, https://ij.org/staff/anya-bidwell/
Anthony Sanders, https://ij.org/staff/asanders/
iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/short-circuit/id309062019
Spotify: https://podcasters.spotify.com/podcast/1DFCqDbZTI7kIws11kEhed/overview
Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/institute-for-justice/short-circuit
Google: https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/Iz26kyzdcpodkfm5cpz7rlvf76a
Newsletter: ij.org/about-us/shortcircuit/
Want to email us? [email protected]
Recent Episodes
Short Circuit 372 | VHS Privacy

An old friend returns to Short Circuit, but it’s not a guest. It’s a case, Villarreal v. City of Laredo, where police retaliated against a […]
Listen NowShort Circuit 371 | Ten Years of Short Circuit

Last week the Short Circuit staff celebrated ten years of our inexhaustive coverage of the federal courts of appeals. At the Studio Theatre in Washington, […]
Listen NowShort Circuit 370 | Humans Only in the Copyright Office

Bad news for our AI listeners this week. The D.C. Circuit ruled that you cannot be the “author” of a copyrighted work. Only humans get […]
Listen NowShort Circuit 369 | Substantive Due Process, The Podcast

Most weeks we summarize two, sometimes three, cases from the federal courts of appeals. This week we provide to you free of charge (as always) […]
Listen Now