Civil Liberties
The Texas Abortion Ban Is a Roadmap to Privatized Oppression
Even justices who take a dim view of Roe v. Wade recognize the law’s chilling implications.
Limiting Principles and the Texas SB 8 Case - Why Texas' Law is a Greater Slippery Slope Menace than a Ruling Against it Would be
If Texas' SB 8 subterfuge works, it would be a dangerous road map for attacking other constitutional rights. The slippery slope risks on the other side are minor by comparison.
Facebook Is Shuttering Its Face Recognition System
Privacy advocates applaud the move.
Abortion Providers Seem Likely to Prevail in Texas SB 8 Case
Today's Supreme Court oral argument suggests they will get the votes of six or more justices. If so, it will be a crucial victory for judicial protection of all constitutional rights, not just abortion rights.
The Supreme Court Declines To Determine if You Have a First Amendment Right To Film the Police
Denver cops received qualified immunity after performing a warrantless search of a man’s tablet and trying to delete a video he took of them beating a suspect.
Kavanaugh Highlights Texas Abortion Law's Threat to 'Second Amendment Rights, Free Exercise of Religion Rights, Free Speech Rights'
The justice grilled a Texas official over the implications of his state’s abortion law.
May Beauty Pageants Limit Themselves to "Natural Born Women"?
Or for that matter to women, to unmarried women, or to women based on age, race, national origin, religion, citizenship (other-"natural-born" or otherwise), and the like?
German Insurance Companies Demand Perilous Playgrounds So That Kids Can Learn About Risk
"This is fantastic progress in understanding childhood as the right time for children to learn to recognize and mitigate risk."
Supreme Court Rebuffs Attempt To Open Up Access to Classified FISA Court Reports
Do Americans have a right to know the extent that the government surveils them?
Academic Freedom Alliance Letter on the University of Florida Situation
The university's effort to suppress expert testimony in a lawsuit against the state is contrary to academic freedom and the First Amendment
The Firearms Policy Coalition Offers a Simple Way to Resolve the Texas SB 8 Case
The Firearms Policy Coalition amicus brief offers a simple and effective way to neuter the threat to judicial review posed by SB 8.
Univ. of Florida Blocks Professors' Expert Witness Work in Case Against Florida Government
A clear academic freedom violation, and likely a First Amendment violation as well: "A concept of loyalty that sweeps so broadly is not one that may legitimately trump compelling interests in speaking on matters of public concern."
Which Genie Will the Supreme Court Let Out of the Bottle?
However the Supreme Court handles the S.B. 8 litigation, it may unleash mischief in other policy areas.
The Firearms Policy Coalition Targets S.B. 8 on the Merits
An amicus brief in Whole Women's Health v. Jackson warns of how S.B. 8's structure could be used to target other constitutional rights.
Last Month's Drop in Texas Abortions Was Far Smaller Than Supporters of the State's Ban Claimed
The actual number of abortions that S.B. 8 prevented by the end of September may be closer to 500 than 3,000.
The U.S. May Stand Alone as a Haven for Free Speech
The First Amendment shields Americans from censorship, but authoritarian legislation in Britain and Canada warns of what could be in store if that protection fails.
Libel Lawsuit Over Allegedly Forged Police Report Finding Plaintiff Had Assaulted His Girlfriend
"After Murray relocated to another state, he contacted the Oceanside Police Department. He then learned the police report he received from Eva-Zacchara had been altered to support her version of events. The real police report concluded 'no assault could be substantiated.'"
"Speaker Removed from Orange County [Fla.] School Board Meeting for Reading from a Book Found at School Library"
But note that the school board chair opined that the book shouldn't be in the library, either.
Cops Tase a Veteran's Service Dog During an Unconstitutional Arrest for Panhandling
The dog died after the man went to jail for exercising his First Amendment rights.
A Study of What Police Know About Court Decisions Exposes 'Qualified Immunity's Boldest Lie'
The Supreme Court's notion of "fair notice," which it says requires blocking many civil rights lawsuits, is based on a demonstrably false assumption.
Georgia City Sued Over Ban on Tiny Houses, Small Cottages
Requiring that homes and apartments be a minimum size is a major driver of high housing costs. A new lawsuit from a nonprofit developer argues those rules are also unconstitutional.
Popular Progressive Policies Helped Ruin Venezuela. They Won't Work Here Either.
The idea that massive government spending, hate speech laws, and gun control will improve America—when they failed horribly elsewhere—is a dangerous myth.
Giving Kyle Rittenhouse Basic Due Process Is Not a Scandal
Such motions are "not uncommon in self-defense cases where there is a dispute over who bears responsibility."
Eyewitnesses with Their Backs Turned
An interesting "harassment, intimidate, or bullying" investigation case from New Jersey schools. (Corrected version of a post initially put up yesterday.)
Why Martin Luther King Couldn't Get a Carry Permit
Several groups urging the Supreme Court to overturn New York’s virtual ban on bearing arms emphasize the policy’s racist roots and racially disproportionate impact.
Court Allows Discovery of Funding Sources for Nunes Family Farms' Libel Lawsuit
against Esquire and Ryan Lizza.
Eyewitnesses with Their Backs Turned
An interesting “harassment, intimidate, or bullying” investigation case from New Jersey schools.
The PATRIOT Act's Poisoned Tree
Two decades after 9/11, the government's appetite for spying has only grown.
Your Cell Phone Is Spying on You
An FBI document reminds us: Your cell phone provider knows where you've been—and will tell the feds.
Whistleblower Absurdly Attacks Facebook's Privacy-Protecting Encryption Efforts
When "protecting users' safety" actually means the opposite
Garry Kasparov: From Communism's Last Chess Champion to Freedom Fighter
30 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, its greatest—and last—chess champion reflects on the awful system that produced him.
