Civil Liberties
The Problems With Just Getting Guns Out of People's Hands as a Solution to Gun Violence
New study sees Chicago harassing and arresting people for paperwork violations, damaging their ability to live and work, without demonstrable effect on gun violence
Now Is the Best Time To Embrace Artificial Intelligence
Which sentence in this podcast was generated using A.I.?
Agatha Christie Books Get Woke Makeover, Join Roald Dahl and Ian Fleming
Books by the acclaimed mystery author have been edited, ostensibly to comport with modern sensibilities.
Supreme Court Should Take and Reverse Fifth Circuit Decision that Creates a Catch-22 for Takings Claims Against State Governments
The badly flawed ruling defies the Supreme Court's landmark 2019 decision forbidding such Catch-22 traps.
Large Libel Models: An AI Company's Noting That Its Output "May [Be] Erroneous]" Doesn't Preclude Libel Liability
[An excerpt from my forthcoming article on "Large Libel Models? Liability for AI Outputs."]
Trump's Anti–First Amendment Skylarking Is DeSantis' Anti–First Amendment Action
The former president wanted to "open up" defamation laws. The governor of Florida is about to try.
This College President Knows the First Amendment Protects the Drag Show He Canceled. He Just Doesn't Care.
"I will not appear to condone the diminishment of any group at the expense of impertinent gestures toward another group for any reason, even when the law of the land appears to require it," he wrote.
My New Article on "Abortion and Foot Voting in a Post-Dobbs America"
It examines whether people are likely to "vote with their feet" based on interstate differences in abortion policy, after Dobbs. The first in a series of two articles on this topic.
Utah Law Gives Parents Full Access to Teens' Social Media
Plus: Theatrics at the House hearing on TikTok, doomsday merger predictions haven't panned out, and more...
Federal Agencies Are Still Using Our Phones as Tracking Beacons
Our mobile devices constantly snitch on our whereabouts.
Parents of Oxford High School Shooter Can Be Prosecuted for Negligent Homicide,
based on their not securing the gun they gave him and other things, given the evidence they had of his mental state.
Charter School Principal "Forced to Resign" Allegedly Because 6th-Grade Students Were Shown Michelangelo's David
[UPDATE: I've added excerpts from a Slate interview with the school's Board Chair, who ended up commenting on the story after all; his view is that the firing stemmed only from the failure to alert parents to the upcoming material.]
Hospitals Are Still Reporting New Mothers for Neglect Based on Drug Tests Triggered by Poppy Seeds
Two New Jersey women who gave birth last fall suffered harrowing ordeals thanks to their breakfast choices.
Congress Asks Is TikTok Really 'An Extension of' the Chinese Communist Party?
TikTok's CEO served as little more than a punching bag for lawmakers with a dizzying array of big tech grievances.
Ohio Cops Sue Afroman for Using Video of Them Raiding His House in Music Videos
Seven sheriff's deputies say the rapper subjected them to "embarrassment, ridicule, emotional distress, humiliation, and loss of reputation" after a drug bust on his house came up empty.
Florida Decides To Extend LGBT School Censorship to All Grades After All
This was never about shielding just the youngest kids from sexual topics.
Maybe A.I. Will Be a Threat—To Governments
The designer of China's Great Firewall sees new A.I. tech as a concern for public authorities.
Law Enforcement Beat This Innocent Man to a Pulp. Will the Supreme Court Allow Him To Seek Recourse?
James King is once again asking the high court to rule that two officers should not receive immunity for choking him unconscious and temporarily disfiguring his face.
Lawsuit Challenges Ban on Physical Mail at California County Jail
Prisons and jails around the country have been banning physical mail and used book donations under the flimsy justification of stopping contraband.
No Temporary Restraining Order Against Critic of Israeli Muslim Institution,
who allegedly accused it of being an agent of the Israeli government and "refer[red] to individuals associated with the Academy as pigs and use[d] porcine imagery to insult those individuals."
A Thursday Bonus Reason Roundtable! Live From Reason Weekend in California
Plus: did the editors sing Happy Birthday to Adam Smith?
A Thursday Bonus Reason Roundtable! Live From Reason Weekend in California
Plus: did the editors sing Happy Birthday to Adam Smith?
TikTok Is Too Popular To Ban
Plus: Police sue Afroman for using footage from raid, California bill could ban popular junk foods, and more...
Law Restricting Pharmacist Speech About Ivermectin and Hydroxycholoroquine Likely Violates the First Amendment
A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against the enforcement of the law.
The DOJ Says Forbidding Pot Users To Own Guns Is Like Telling People Not To Carry Guns When They're Drunk
Defending a categorical ban on gun possession by cannabis consumers, the Biden administration cites inapt "historical analogues."
Correction re: ChatGPT-4 Erroneously Reporting Supposed Crimes and Misconduct, Complete with Made-Up Quotes?
My Friday post erroneously stated that I got the bogus results from ChatGPT-4; it turns out they were from ChatGPT-3.5—but ChatGPT-4 does also yield similarly made-up results.
The Crusade Against 'Malinformation' Explicitly Targets Inconvenient Truths
The legal challenge to censorship by proxy highlights covert government manipulation of online speech.
Filmmaker Tiller Russell Humanizes What Happened at Waco
A new Netflix documentary shows how the seeds of political polarization that roil our culture today were planted at Waco.
Ninth Circuit Strikes Down Ban on Landlords' Inquiring About Prospective Tenants' Criminal History, But …
upholds the ban on landlords' taking adverse action based on that information.
Joanna Schwartz's "Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable"
An important and compelling new book on qualified immunity and other obstacles to holding law enforcement officers accountable for rights violations.
Of Course, the Trump Indictment Is Political
Plus: A listener asks the editors if the nation is indeed unraveling or if she is just one of "The Olds" now.
Police Officers Charged With Murder in 'Smothering' of Virginia Man
"What I saw today was heartbreaking," said the victim's mother. "It was disturbing, it was traumatic. My son was tortured."
Biden Nominee to the First Circuit Faces Potential Democratic Opposition Over Abortion
A nominee's work defending a state parental-notification law in 2005 may be a stumbling block to his confirmation.
