Civil Liberties
Judge Whose A.G. Spouse Bashes Backpage Won't Recuse Herself From Backpage Trial
Judge Susan Brnovich said no reasonable person would question her impartiality just because her husband already says they're guilty.
Fifth Circuit Speaks Out Against Campus Speech Codes (in University of Texas Case)
Speech First, a pro-campus-free-speech advocacy group, can go on with its challenge to UT-Austin's speech codes—and the panel strongly suggests those codes (backed by anonymous reporting to the Campus Climate Response Team) are unconstitutional.
Protests and Looting Continue After Philadelphia Cops Fatally Shoot a Knife-Wielding Man Experiencing a 'Mental Crisis'
Walter Wallace's family says the officers could have defused the situation without using lethal force.
Published Criticism of Lawyer Isn't Retaliation Forbidden by Disability Law
"The Court cannot punish or hold Defendants liable merely for publishing a summary of Plaintiff's disciplinary action and their commentary about that decision."
Need Proof That Encryption Backdoors Lead to Hacking? It Happened to Our Own Government.
The National Security Agency arranged for security systems to be secretly compromised. Then the Chinese government allegedly found its way in.
A New Round of COVID-19 Restrictions Drives Illinois Eateries to Rebellion
Who could have predicted that intolerable rules won’t be tolerated?
Narcos TV Show Doesn't Infringe Virginia Vallejo's Memoir
A good illustration of a basic principle: Facts are not protected by copyright.
Criminal Libel Conviction Over Fake-Name Online Reviews
An interesting new case from Wisconsin.
Surprise: DOJ Is Not a Big Fan of Privacy-Preserving Cryptocurrencies
Privacy is a right, not a “high risk” and “possibly criminal” activity
Utah Legislator: If You Don't Want to Be Attacked by Police Dogs, 'Stay Home'
The state legislature is considering reforms in response to the use of dogs against cooperative suspects.
Zoom's Refusal to Host Events That Include Terrorist Group Leader Leila Khaled
Prof. Steven Lubet (Northwestern Pritzker School of Law) has an excellent analysis.
'This Building Has Caused More Problems Than It Solved'
Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos on schooling during COVID-19, the future of higher ed, and why her cabinet department probably shouldn't exist at all
Gossip About Real Housewives of Orange County "Bravolebrities" Is on "Public Issue"
So holds the California Court of Appeal, interpreting the California anti-SLAPP statute.
School District Bans All "Political Speech" on Student T-Shirts
Pretty clearly unconstitutional, it seems to me, whether applied to pro-Trump T-shirts (as in a recently-filed lawsuit) or to other such material.
Police Chief Gets Restraining Order Barring "Cop Watcher" from Publicly Videorecording Her
But the Oregon Court of Appeals rightly reverses.
Lawyer Dean Boland Asks Google to Deindex Court Opinions, Newspaper Articles, Blog Posts About Him
Including from Above The Law, Jonathan Turley, PopeHat, Simple Justice, TechDirt, Reuters, Bloomberg, L.A. Times, Cleveland Plain Dealer, and more.
Don't Be Fooled By Our Media Wars: Everybody Hates Free Speech
Treating free expression like an instrument of power means that the fight is more about who gets punished most when politicians write new restrictions.
"Fake News": Preventing Falsehoods in Candidate Statements in Ballot Pamphlets
The Washington Supreme Court overrules a trial court's order requiring the removal of one such statement; but what should the general rule on this be?
Court Revives Wiretap Target's Attempt to Get Information About the Wiretap
In 2014, more than half of all California wiretaps (and one sixth of all the wiretaps in the U.S.) were authorized by one judge in Riverside County.
Rethinking the Seattle "CHOP" Takings Case
Property owners are suing the city for helping far-left activists seize control of their property during the period when it allowed the latter to rule an "autonomous zone" covering 16 blocks in the area.
Cop's Libel Claim Over Amazon-Distributed Free Meek Documentary Can Go Forward
Officer Saqueta Williams had been on the DA's "Do Not Call [to Testify] List" because of alleged assault during an off-duty incident (as to which she was later acquitted)—she alleges the documentary falsely implied that she was on the list because she was "dirty and dishonest."
When Encryption Was a Crime: The 1990s Battle for Free Speech in Software
Part three in Reason's documentary series, "Cypherpunks Write Code," tells the story of the U.S. government's long battle to keep strong cryptography out of the hands of its citizens
545 Migrant Kids Snatched by the U.S. Government Are Still Missing Parents
Plus: What Jeffrey Toobin teaches us about Section 230, Wisconsin's Foxconn boondoggle, Breonna Taylor juror speaks out, and more...
Can't Seal Case Just Because It's Frivolous
"In nearly all civil and criminal litigation ..., one party asserts that the allegations leveled against it by another party are patently false"; but "if the purported falsity of the complaint's allegations were sufficient to seal an entire case, then the law would recognize a presumption to seal instead of a presumption of openness."
Courts Should Check 'Majority Rule'
Democrats and Republicans agree on that point, although they disagree about what it means in practice.
Conservative Commentator Candace Owens Sues USA Today and Fact-Checker "Lead Stories" for Libel
over allegedly false fact-checking "charging [Owens] with spreading misinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic on the internet in 'an attempt to downplay the severity' of the pandemic."
Ted Cruz Threatens To Force Facebook and Twitter Heads To Testify About Hunter Biden Article
Plus: Supreme Court won't stop Pennsylvania from counting late ballots, proposed amendment would limit Court to nine justices, and more...
Politics and Social Media: Should We Use Exit, Voice, or Loyalty?
The Reason Roundtable argues over what to do when Twitter prematurely suppresses oppo-dump journalism unfavorable to Democrats, and when politicians respond with retaliatory regulation.
$465 Million Judgment Against Johnson & Johnson Threatens Freedom of Speech
A brief supporting the company's appeal argues that its discussion of pain treatment was constitutionally protected.
No Sealing of Health Care Quality Review Report in Doctor-vs.-Hospital Lawsuit
"Plaintiff would have his allegations litigated in a star chamber with a jury of ordinary citizens presumably barred from discussing the case after their service in a closed courtroom."
Cops Clash with Protesters in America and Around the World
Plus: Pennsylvania restaurant wins lockdown lawsuit, Pakistan bans TikTok, and more...
The Federal Death Penalty Returns
State-level executions have been on the decline since 2000, but the federal government recently got back in the business of executing prisoners.
Divided Sixth Circuit Upholds Kentucky Abortion Regulations
The Sixth Circuit joins the Eighth Circuit in recognizing the import of Chief Justice Roberts' controlling opinion in June Medical Services
Minnesota Order Banning "False or Defamatory Statements" Limited to Knowingly False And Defamatory Statements
So says the Minnesota Court of Appeals, as to a "harassment restraining order."
The Complicated Truth About the Boogaloo Movement
These Hawaiian shirt-wearing, gun-toting Gen Z activists say they stand with Black Lives Matter, against gun control, and are preparing for total state collapse.
Milo Yiannopoulos Defends Basic Traditions of Journalism
A federal judge makes it clear: "the consumption of alcohol at a party does not vitiate journalistic intent"; hard-drinking reporters are as covered by the journalist's privilege as the abstemious. Other journalistic traditions that aren't disqualifying: bias, and bearing grudges.
Guns and Control
San Francisco writer Guy Smith finds little evidence that the availability of firearms explains differences in suicide and homicide rates.
If Trump Was Serious About Police Reform, He Would Have Addressed Qualified Immunity
The legal doctrine makes it considerably harder to hold cops accountable. Trump refused to address it.
