Stories we hope our listeners can relate to this week: borrowing cars and lousy neighbors. First, from the Sixth Circuit, IJ’s Rob Frommer details how a man sitting in the passenger seat of a running car somehow lost his Fourth Amendment standing. And went to prison. And then in the Second Circuit your host explores what can be done when your neighbor is an embassy. It’s an all-too-familiar tale of a building project gone awry but with a twist of sovereign immunity.  

Click here for transcript.

Register for the May 10 open fields conference!

U.S. v. Rogers

Harvey v. Sierra Leone

Neighbors 1980’s opening song

Fawlty Towers—The Builders

Recent Episodes

Short Circuit 354 | Grounds Increasingly Dubious

We start with a case that ticks a lot of Short Circuit boxes: eliminating governmental immunities, state constitutions, preliminary injunctions, conniving public officials, mootness, and […]

Listen Now

Short Circuit 353 | Jurisdictional Mavens

Notable—and quotable—Chicago lawyer Patrick Eckler joins us for a crash-course in Seventh Circuit paranoia (if you’re paranoid about jurisdictional questions at oral argument—which you really […]

Listen Now

Short Circuit 352 | Misinformation

We go online for some First Amendment content this week. First, IJ’s Jeff Redfern explains how the Eleventh Circuit concluded that CNN might be liable […]

Listen Now

Short Circuit 351 | State Court Shenanigans

A couple friends drop by this week who have overstayed their welcome: Rooker and Feldman. Together they make up the Rooker-Feldman doctrine, a weed that […]

Listen Now