Taylor Swift Decision: Copiers Gonna Copy, Copy, Copy
And that's not copyright infringement, if they only copy short phrases, especially ones that were themselves largely copied from others.
Civil Liberties
Yes, This Is a Good Time To Talk About Gun Violence and How To Reduce It
The Florida school shooting is horrific, but making sure such tragedies never happen is no simple matter.
Two Baltimore Police Officers Found Guilty of Armed Robbery, Racketeering
The trial of two Gun Trace Task Force members sheds light on a deeply dysfunctional department.
Libertarian History/Philosophy
Wired Thinks Free Speech Has Been Tried and Failed
The ancient authoritarian imperative to restrict speech shows up in a new guise.
Alabama Prosecutor, Sheriff Threaten to Put More People in Prison in Order to Keep Seizing Massive Amounts of Property
Lawmakers are considering long-overdue civil asset forfeiture reform, and law enforcement leaders aren't happy.
Florida Cops Used Drones to Foil a Suicide Attempt
Cop tech can facilitate better policing, but it urgently needs more oversight.
Donald Trump Is Confused About Due Process
"Peoples lives are being shattered and destroyed by a mere allegation."
Whatever Happened to Michael Mann's Defamation Suit (2018 edition)
It's been over a year since a petition for rehearing en banc was filed and the D.C. Court of Appeals has yet to act.
White House Won't Declassify Dems' Memo on Campaign Surveillance—at Least Not Yet
Trump says he's inclined to do so, but letter expresses concerns about "sensitive passages."
New Jersey Cop Fired for Having Once Appeared in Fetish Films
Meanwhile, drunk driving and vehicular assault by officers are not firing offenses in Hudson County.
Someone Trying to Vanish My Post About Someone Trying to Vanish Another Post
In March, I wrote about a forged court order that someone was using to try to get Google to de-index online criticism of a New Britain, Conn. community activist (and volunteer city commissioner); now, someone has asked Google to de-index my post, plus a TechDirt post on the same subject.
Mass Surveillance Is One Chinese Export We Should Ban
Privacy law is eons behind surveillance technology
Immigration Authorities Want Access to All the Raw Intelligence the Feds Already Collected on You
And Donald Trump just might be the president to give ICE free rein.
John Perry Barlow, The Thomas Jefferson of Cyberspace, R.I.P.
Co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Grateful Dead lyricist, helped create the notion of "cyberspace" as realm of unprecedented liberty.
Senate Memo on the Surveillance of Carter Page Suggests FBI Was Misled by Steele
The Nunes memo says the FBI deceived the court. Grassley's memo suggests the FBI was tricked itself.
There's Still No Big 'There' in the Russia Probe
The FBI's disappointing surveillance of Carter Page illustrates the difficulty of implicating the president in illegal collusion.
Vatican Official Says China, Which Persecutes Christians and Murders Dissidents, Is the Country 'Best Implementing the Social Doctrine of the Church'
An Argentinian bishop in Rome may not be the best authority on Chinese politics.
California Court Upholds First Amendment Right Not to Bake Cake for Same-Sex Wedding
This is a trial court decision, and an appeal seems likely.
Wooster Activists' Demands: Expel a Racist Student, More Diversity Training, Less Money for Ultimate Frisbee
Men's Ultimate Frisbee received $15,747.78. "Brothers of Diversity received $984."
Do You Have a First Amendment Right to Flip Off the Cops?
A lawsuit filed by the Indiana ACLU says yes.
Governments Hate Bitcoin and Cash for the Same Reason: They Protect People's Privacy.
Officials want to track every financial transaction you make, and they see cryptocurrencies and cash alike as barriers to achieving that goal.
"Second Amendment Law Lessons: Look Beyond the Courts for Freedom"
Excellent advice from Prof. Glenn Harlan Reynolds (InstaPundit), in USA Today.
No, President Trump, It's Not 'Treasonous' to Be Chill During the State of Union
"You have the other side, even on positive news, really positive news… they were like death, and un-American."
Want to Make an Untraceable Handgun at Home? Cody Wilson Can Help.
His Ghost Gunner and 3D printing are destroying the concept of gun control.
Harvard Commits to Ban on Single-Sex Organizations, But Will Allow 'Gender-Focused' Female Groups
Female groups are allowed to remain "gender focused," while male groups are penalized.
Trump's Critics Worry That He's Undermining Trust in the FBI, As If That's a Bad Thing
More Republican skepticism of law enforcement agencies is a welcome development.
Exposing Taxis to Competition from Uber and Lyft Is Not a Taking that Requires Compensation Under the Constitution
A federal court correctly rejects a dubious takings claim by Philadelphia cab companies.
Gene Sharp, RIP: The Man Who Tried to Take the Violence Out of War
He was one of the world's greatest theorists of nonviolent revolution. But don't call him a pacifist.
Excluding Anti-Gay Speaker From Open-to-the-Public Pride Festival Violated First Amendment
First Amendment principles that offensive speech is protected "are by no means new. Yet they are strangely absent from the papers submitted by [City of Syracuse defendants] in defense of their actions toward plaintiff James Deferio, a Christian evangelical who regularly proselytizes at the Central New York Pride Parade and Festival ...."
"Selective Surveillance Outrage" and "Situational Libertarianism" Isn't Good Enough, Congress!
The Nunes memo deserved to be released, and so does the forthcoming Schiff one. But come on, D.C., get serious about abuse of FISA and other powers!
No Freedom From the Church of America
The religion this church administers is Americanism, a species of nationalism.
America's Secret Death Penalty Drugs
Governments have gone to great effort to keep the sources and methods of their death penalty regimes secret.
Here's What Rand Paul, Mark Meadows, and Others in Washington Are Saying About the Nunes Memo
Now that it's out, nobody's minds seem to have changed.
Ban on Guns Near Parks Violates the Second Amendment, Illinois Supreme Court Says
The state's 1,000-foot rule made accidental felons out of people carrying firearms for self-defense.
White House Releases Declassified Memo Alleging Bias in FBI Surveillance of Trump Campaign Staffer (UPDATE: Dem Memo Details Leaked)
Nunes report claims Democratic Party-origins of Steele dossier concealed from court.
More on the Secret Speech Restriction in the Barley House Case
Can an American court punish a speaker for his speech, on the theory that he breached an agreement not to speak -- all the while keeping the speech-restrictive agreement secret?
Felons Who Want Their Voting Rights Back Are Getting Unconstitutionally Screwed, Says Judge
The state uses a panel of partisan officials with absolute discretion to determine who gets to vote again
Get Yourself Ready for 'The Memo'—Will It Rock Your World or Put You to Sleep?
Trump has reviewed a document alleging FBI misconduct. It might be released Friday.
New Free Speech History Podcast (First Episode: Ancient Athens)
It's by Jacob Mchangama, and presented by (among others) the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education.
A Non-Terrible District Attorney Wins in Philly
But will he be able to follow through?
Middlebury Activist Who Published List of Alleged Rapists May Have Violated Title IX
"I could really give a f**k about protecting the privacy of abusers."
Neil Gorsuch and Samuel Alito Butt Heads Over the Fourth Amendment, Again
Gorsuch advances another property rights theory of the Fourth Amendment that Alito rejects.
Inserting People into Porn Movies: The First Amendment Textbook Problem (2005)
A prediction comes true, for better or worse ....
This Boring British Cops Clone May Show the Future of American Mass Surveillance
Mass surveillance is up and running on Britain's roads. Will ours be next?
Justifying Surveillance of Carter Page Would Have Been Pretty Easy
The FBI needed probable cause to believe he was an agent of a foreign power, a standard that is not hard to meet.
Poland's Holocaust Bill Is a Hate Speech Ban
The bill's backers say talking about Polish complicity in Nazi genocide is a form of group defamation.
National I.D. By Any Other Name Still Stinks
A patchwork of state-level systems accomplishes what Americans have specifically rejected, and perhaps far more.
