Katie Herzog and Jesse Singal on Left-Wing Cancel Culture
The heterodox hosts of the popular Blocked and Reported podcast talk about surviving internet outrage, the roots of speech repression, and the power of direct financial support from fans.
Civil Liberties
The Justice Department Is Trying To Stop the Publication of John Bolton's White House Tell-All
They’re not likely to succeed, but the real goal is to seize any money he makes.
Matt Boermeester, a USC Football Player Who Was Expelled After an Unfair Title IX Investigation, Wins in Court
"USC stripped away my hopes and dreams of playing in the NFL, and this ‘win' does not erase that."
Ohio S. Ct. Reverses Order Blocking Man from All "Posting About" His Sister and Mother
"Even if past [mentally distressing] speech that an offender made to a person ... could be considered ... integral to the criminal conduct of menacing by stalking [and thus unprotected], we do not believe that this principle may be applied categorically to future speech ... directed to others."
Protest Organizers Shouldn't Be Liable for Other People's Crimes
A lower court precedent left unchallenged would unjustly compromise First Amendment protest rights. The Supreme Court should reconsider.
Former eBay Employees "Charged with Leading a Cyberstalking Campaign Targeting the … Publisher of a Newsletter"
"that eBay executives viewed as critical of the company" (as best I can tell, the newsletter is EcommerceBytes).
Public and Private Sectors Clash on Contact Tracing
Apple and Google’s API promises to put privacy first. State health authorities have other ideas.
Clarence Thomas Upbraids SCOTUS for 'Prolonging Our Decade-Long Failure to Protect the Second Amendment'
"The fundamental protections set forth in our Constitution," Thomas writes, should be "applied equally to all citizens."
Supreme Court Rules, 6–3, That LGBT Workplace Discrimination Violates Civil Rights Act
Justice Neil Gorsuch's majority decision offers a textualist argument for the ruling.
Art History Professor Condemned by Stanford Undergraduate Senate
Her crime? Spelling out what the rap group N.W.A. stands for, and quoting one of their lyrics.
"No Official, High or Petty, Can Prescribe What Shall Be Orthodox"
"in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion."
Requirement of Licensing and Test for Tour Guides Violates the First Amendment
"An individual's right to speak is implicated when information he or she possesses is subjected to restraints on the way in which the information might be used or disseminated."
Another Judge Rules That Ohio's COVID-19 Lockdown Is Illegal
The decision says the "unbridled and unfettered consolidation of authority in one unelected official" violates due process and the separation of powers.
How 2020 Demolished the Case for Gun Control
For those who have been advising Americans for years that we should lay down our own weapons and trust armed government employees, this year has been a massive reality check.
Federal Aircraft Accused of Tracking Protesters
Plus: Breonna’s Law bans no-knock raids in Kentucky, Amazon's third-party problem, new findings on metabolism, and more...
"Vocational Training Is Speech Protected by the First Amendment"
Ninth Circuit allows plaintiffs to challenge California statute that bars students from attending some for-pay trade schools unless the students have a high school diploma, have a GED, or can pass a government-prescribed test.
Both Left and Right Should Stop Blithely Wishing for a New Civil War
All that accomplishes is encouraging us to view our fellow Americans as enemies, to see ourselves as members of warring tribes rather than citizens of a nation.
Microsoft and Amazon Adopt Temporary Bans on Police Use of Their Facial Recognition Tech. That's Not Nearly Enough.
Both companies need to join IBM and others in entirely abandoning the development of this mass surveillance technology.
Prof. Randall Kennedy (Harvard Law) on Accurately Quoting Racial Epithets
"For me, demands for silence, for avoidance, or for bowdlerization will be offered no deference."
Trump's Bump Stock Ban Is Under Fire From His Own Judicial Appointees
This unilateral executive action has been scrutinized by both Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch and U.S. District Judge Brantley Starr.
California Ammunition Raids Put Innocent People at Risk of Police Violence
The state boasts of blocking 754 illegal purchases, but it wrongly tagged 101,047 law-abiding people as prohibited. Any of them could have been targeted.
Should We Stop Streaming Gone With the Wind?
No, we should interrogate its persistent popularity and our relationship to it as forcefully as possible.
No Routine Sealing of Names of Officers Who Arrested Molotov-Cocktail-Thrower
"Absent some concrete threat to the officers, which has not been suggested here, there is no principled way to discern why this case would justify redactions while others would not."
Does City's Painting of Messages on City Streets Require It to Give Equal Access to Other Messages?
No, if the city endorses the messages as its own.
May the Law Ban Calls to Government Offices "Using Indecent Language" "With Intent to Harass or Embarrass"?
With a special cameo appearance by Eric Holder.
The Attorney General's Overblown Fears About Scrapping Qualified Immunity
It's not likely to have the chilling effect he expects. Unfortunately, it might not do as much as criminal justice reformers expect either.
Court Allows Subpoena of Media for Unpublished but Nonconfidential Interview Outtakes
An interesting illustration of the qualified privilege that many courts recognize in such cases.
What 9/11 and the Financial Crisis Teach Us About COVID-19
Sometime in 2021, the American people will be presented with a reorganized and newly empowered federal public health bureaucracy. As time passes, it will grow in size and scope.
What Would It Mean for President Trump to Declare Antifa a "Domestic Terrorist Organization"?
Not much as a legal matter, as best I can tell. [See UPDATE.]
UCLA Poli Sci Department Condemns Lecturer for Reading MLK's Letter from Birmingham Jail, Showing Video About Lynching
UCLA says complaints -- about the fact that both the excerpt read from King's letter and the video included the word "nigger" -- have "been shared with UCLA’s Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion for review."
47 U.S.C. § 230 Preempts State Right of Publicity Claims
and other state (but not federal) intellectual property claims brought over platforms' hosting of third-party content.
The Year Gun Control Died
Gun opponents would leave predatory cops armed and their victims helpless.
L.A. Politicians Planning Big Gift to Gun Industry, Private Security Companies
The likely unintentional result if the City of Los Angeles implements its plans to reduce the proposed police department budget (now $1.8B) by $100-150M.
Joe Biden Wants To Reform the Criminal Justice System He Helped Create
The presidential candidate deserves praise for retreating from his tough-on-crime stance. But let's not forget that his policies contributed to mass incarceration and the police misconduct that people are protesting today.
"Statement on Campus Censorship During Nationwide Protests"
From the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
