Trump Is Trying To Fire Most of the White House's Civil Liberties Watchdog
The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board should be Trump's ally in a battle against the deep state. So why is he undermining it?
Civil Liberties
Calling Someone "White Supremacist" in Online Debate Is Opinion …
and thus not actionable defamation, unless defendant "implies undisclosed facts by insinuating that the plaintiff" engaged in specific racist acts or made (undisclosed) racist statements.
TikTok or Not, Americans Still Have a Right To Receive Communist Propaganda
A unanimous Supreme Court decision established as much in 1965.
Choice of Law in Takings Cases After Tyler v. Hennepin County (III)
The Court’s departures from standard choice of law principles (or, takings doctrine for federal courts gurus).
Michael Shermer: Conspiracy Thinking, Wokeness, and the Future of Free Thought
The founder of Skeptic magazine discusses whether conspiracy thinking is on the rise and whether it's coded right or left.
Our Amicus Brief Urging the Supreme Court to Hear Case on Overruling Kelo v. City of New London
The brief is on behalf of the Cato Institute and myself.
"TikTok's Tech Partners Face Massive Legal Risks by Relying on Trump's Promises Not to Enforce the Ban Law, …
as courts rarely protect defendants who count on executive non-enforcement," writes Prof. Alan Rozenshtein (Minnesota).
Man Sues HBO, Claiming He Is the Pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto, Inventor of Bitcoin
But "[n]othing in Plaintiff's conclusory assertions suggest that Plaintiff could plead facts plausibly linking his identity with that of the pseudonymous Satoshi Nakamoto."
Choice of Law in Takings Cases After Tyler v. Hennepin County (II)
The Court's approach to the choice of law question (or, federal courts doctrine for property lawyers).
Choice of Law in Takings Cases After Tyler v. Hennepin County
The Tyler case and the choice of law questions it raises.
Hours After Going Dark, TikTok Is Back
The popular video app restored service in the U.S. after President-elect Donald Trump promised to postpone a federal ban.
The Laken Riley Act Reminds Us: If a Law Is Named After Someone, It's Probably Bad
Riley's murder was an atrocity. But the law bearing her name is a grab bag of authoritarian policies that have little to do with her death.
"Another Email Account Impersonating a Banker Working for [Plaintiff] Invited … Recipients … to Join a Fictitious Neo-Nazi Banking Club"
One of many allegedly defamatory statements allegedly sent by a former summer intern at a financial company; the court holds a proposed preliminary injunction against future speech by defendant about plaintiff would be an unconstitutional prior restraint, but issues a narrower injunction.
Hospital Staff Failed To Treat Her Miscarriage, Then Accused Her of a Crime
A new lawsuit alleges that, after failing to treat a placental abruption, medical staff conspired to have Brittany Watts arrested for her miscarriage.
Bill Maher's Saying Trump "Might Be" "Fucking" Republican Activist Laura Loomer Might Be Defamation of Loomer
A judge lets Loomer's defamation claim against Maher and HBO go forward.
DEA Ends Airport Gate Searches After Years of Documented Abuses of Civil Asset Forfeiture
The Justice Department temporarily suspended the program in November because of "significant risks" of constitutional violations.
Lawless IV: Leadership Failures Old and New
The pandemic showed the weakness of the leadership class. [UPDATE: Inadvertently posted it under my byline, but it's of course Ilya Shapiro's post, as the byline now reflects. -EV]
So…Is TikTok Really Getting Banned?
The Supreme Court appears poised to uphold a ban on the app, but many creators aren't so sure.
The Future of Online Porn Is At Stake Today
The Supreme Court is hearing arguments in a Texas case that could have major ramifications across the country—including, perhaps, the end of anonymity online.
The Law That Disarmed Trump Is Unfair, Illogical, and Constitutionally Dubious
The president-elect lost his Second Amendment rights thanks to a nonsensical gun ban.
The Best of Reason: 'The Constitution Is Not a Suicide Pact'
How a 1949 Supreme Court dissent gave birth to a meme that subverts free speech and civil liberties.
Here's How Police Are Being Trained To Deal With Incels
The Department of Homeland Security is watching men who are mad they can’t get girlfriends.
Yes, Mark Zuckerberg, You Can Shout 'Fire' in a Crowded Theater
Anyone discussing free speech should at least try to get this right.
"Regulation of Algorithms" Panel at Federalist Society Faculty Conference,
featuring Prof. Saurabh Vishnubhakat (Yeshiva), Profs. Gregory Dickinson (Nebraska), Prof. Christina Mulligan (Brooklyn), Dhruva Krishna (Kirkland & Ellis), and me.
How Awful Policies Fueled the L.A. Fires
Plus: A listener asks the editors if Donald Trump is the most libertarian president ever.
Maryland Cop Who Recklessly Shot a 5-Year-Old Boy Got Qualified Immunity
The Cato Institute is urging the Supreme Court to take up the case and reaffirm that the liability shield does not apply to "obvious rights violations."
