The Messy TikTok Sale Is What Happens When Governments Get Involved in Social Media
Plus: More red states may get legal weed, antitrust action against Google expected this week, the Cuties controversy, and more...
Civil Liberties
Why Hong Kong's Protests Turned Violent
The escalation is part of a strategy to unmask China's abuses before the world.
Why Violent Protests Backfire
Martin Luther King explained why they are "socially destructive and self-defeating."
Rule 11 Sanctions in "Quackwatch" Libel Case
Plaintiffs claimed that defendants had libeled them to foreign officials—but didn't have enough evidence that the defendants had actually said anything to those officials.
The COVID-19 Pandemic Keeps Proving Deadly to Liberty
As the pandemic rages on, nominally free countries are sliding down a path blazed by authoritarian regimes.
Massachusetts Abandons Its Puzzling Public Health Distinction Between Casinos and Video Arcades
A week after being sued over his arbitrary COVID-19 policy, Gov. Charlie Baker says he will allow arcades to reopen.
SCOTUS Contender James Ho Combines Respect for Free Speech and Gun Rights With a Troubling Deference to Cops
The 5th Circuit judge is a mixed bag from a libertarian perspective.
China's Dark Turn
A country that was once making strides toward freedom slides further into oppression and authoritarianism.
Are Video Arcades More Dangerous Than Casinos During a Pandemic?
A federal lawsuit argues that the distinction drawn by Massachusetts is unconstitutional.
Letter from USC Marshall School of Business Alumni About the "Neige" / Prof. Greg Patton Controversy
"This current incident, and Marshall's response so far, seem disturbingly similar to prevalent behavior in China [during the Cultural Revolution]—spurious accusations against innocent people, which escalated into institutional insanity."
If Employers Believe That Hearing the Mandarin "Neige" (Meaning "That") "Affect[s]" Black Students' "Mental Health,"
would they be likely to hire blacks for jobs in China, or anywhere where they might have to hear Mandarin?
USC "Casting Insult Toward the Chinese Language"
More on the Mandarin "neige" controversy.
Facebook Need Not Remove "Russia State-Controlled Media" Label from Maffick's "In the Now," "Waste-Ed," and "Soapbox" Pages
"In effect, Maffick contends that it is likely to succeed on the merits because its CEO says so. That is far from enough to establish a likelihood of success on the merits, particularly in light of the largely undisputed counter-evidence Facebook tendered."
D.C. Prosecutions Highlight the Connection Between Gun Control and Racial Disparities
Why do progressives who worry about unequal justice support policies that are bound to make that problem worse?
8th-Grader Suspended for "Search[ing] for Inappropriate Topics," Such as "Worst WWI Gun"
Fortunately, the N.Y. State Education Department has now reversed the decision, which had been made by the Valley Central School District (about 70 miles north of New York City).
NSA Ruling Reminds Us That Sacrificing Civil Liberties in the Name of National Security Is a Bipartisan Impulse
A federal appeals court concludes that the agency's mass collection of phone records was illegal and probably unconstitutional.
FOSTA Is Unconstitutional, Argue Sexual Freedom Advocates and First Amendment Lawyers in New Motion
Plus: People have doubts about democracy, Washington state sues Juul, and more...
3rd Circuit Federal Appeals Court Says Large-Capacity Magazine Bans Are OK
Last month, the 9th Circuit said the opposite. It's a question the Supreme Court might have to resolve.
"Some [Academics] Fear for Their Career Because They Don't Believe Progressive Orthodoxies"
From Prof. John McWhorter (Columbia) in The Atlantic.
Right of Publicity Lawsuit by Alleged "Pantless Couponer" Dismissed
“Just because the story and the photograph may be embarrassing or distressful to the plaintiff does not mean the newspaper cannot publish what is otherwise newsworthy.”
Trying to Unseal Affidavit and Block Pseudonymity in Cincinnati Police Officer Libel Case
The Cincinnati Enquirer and I have just filed a petition seeking this, in the Ohio Court of Appeals.
In New Tests, Facial Recognition Products Are Consistently Thwarted by Masks
Defeating surveillance is a powerful argument for covering your face.
New Jersey Mayor Bills Teen Protest Organizer for Police Overtime Pay
Plus: Congress to vote on marijuana decriminalization, tech visas are getting turned down at high rates, and more...
Should Universities Recommend (or Demand) Epithet Filtering on Students' and Professors' Internet Devices?
A thought experiment that came to my mind; I'd love to hear what others think about it.
The Controversy Over Quoting Racial Epithets, Now at UC Irvine School of Law
Plus a new draft law review article on the subject, by Prof. Randall Kennedy (Harvard Law School), a leading scholar of race and the law, and me.
Ambazonia, Remedies, and the First Amendment
Across the Atlantic from Amazonia lies ... Ambazonia.
Sarah Palin's Libel Lawsuit Against the New York Times Can Go to Trial
There is enough evidence that the Times knew their allegations were false (or at least were likely false) to go to the jury.
Fighting Words in the Connecticut Supreme Court
Three interesting opinions: a sound majority, a plausible concurrence, and another concurrence focused on "hate speech" that I think is unsound.
Tucson Handyman Gets His Jeep Back After He Threatens to Fight the Forfeiture
The cops seized Kevin McBride's $15,000 car because his girlfriend allegedly used it for a $25 marijuana sale.
The ACLU Defends the NRA
David Cole writes in defense of the National Rifle Association
The Politics of Guns Are Changing. Politicians Need To Catch Up.
Millions of new firearm owners who have lost faith in cops and government will be a tough audience for shopworn gun control schemes.
Dean Lyrissa Lidsky on the Nicholas Sandmann Litigation
Dean Lidsky is a libel law scholar, and one of the two Reporters of the Restatement (Third) of Torts: Defamation & Privacy.
Anti-Riot Act Partly Upheld, Partly Struck Down
The Fourth Circuit decides a case involving defendants who violently participated in two white supremacist rallies in California and in the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, but the logic applies equally to rioters of all stripes.
Mike Godwin, the Creator of Godwin's Law, Is Suing Trump Over His TikTok Executive Order
"I know what moral panics look like; they look kind of like this."
Tennessee's Lawmakers Respond to Police Reform Protests by Threatening Voting Rights and Gun Rights
The new law features harsher penalties, 12-hour detentions, and other invitations to abuse government power
#MeToo, #TheyLied, and Pseudonymous Litigation (II)
When can libel plaintiffs, suing over allegedly false claims of sexual misconduct, sue pseudonymously? When can defendants defend pseudonymously?
The Cops Took This Guy's $15,000 Jeep Because His Girlfriend Allegedly Used It for a $25 Marijuana Sale
Kevin McBride argues that Arizona's civil forfeiture law is unconstitutional.
