Two holiday delights this week: The right of a former president to say “Deranged prosecutor Jack Smith” and the proper standard when officials recklessly fail to keep a suicide watch. First it’s Paul Sherman with the D.C. Circuit’s analysis of how former President Trump’s speech can be curtailed while he’s being prosecuted in Washington, D.C. The First Amendment interest is high, but is it high enough? Even though the court applies strict scrutiny the answer is mostly no. Paul explains how it seems like a good precedent when it is applied to less exceptional cases in the future. Then Patrick Jaicomo brings us to the Fourth Circuit where a woman tragically killed herself while in a jail—and while the jail’s staff knew she had already tried to. To get there, though, the court needed to clean up some of its caselaw and square it with what the Supreme Court has said.
Click here for transcript.
Recent Episodes
Short Circuit 444 | Recording the Police with Facebook Immunity
Another circuit recognizes a there’s a First Amendment right to record the police. In this case, a “First Amendment auditor” stood on a public sidewalk […]
Listen NowShort Circuit 443 | Irreparable Speech Harms
In our #12Months12Circuits series a nation turns its lonely eyes to the heartland. The true middle of America. The Eighth Circuit. We’re joined by true […]
Listen NowShort Circuit 442 | Free Speech Died Here, Ask Me How
Tragedy and comedy, from the Fifth Circuit and then from the Tenth. First, Patrick Jaicomo of IJ describes how the police in Laredo, Texas mistakenly […]
Listen NowShort Circuit 441 | Rights for Listeners
We often hear of the right to speak. But what about the right to listen? The Ninth Circuit just reaffirmed that listeners have First Amendment […]
Listen Now