Civil Liberties
Hillsdale College Revokes Curriculum License to "Classical" School Over Its Objections to Michelangelo's David
"This drama around teaching Michelangelo's 'David' sculpture, one of the most important works of art in existence, has become ... a parody of ... the actual aims of classical education."
Communications Can Be Defamatory Even If Readers Realize There's a Considerable Risk of Error
And AI programs' "tendency [to, among other things, produce untruthful content] can be particularly harmful as models become increasingly convincing and believable, leading to overreliance on them by users. Counterintuitively, hallucinations can become more dangerous as models become more truthful, as users build trust in the model when it provides truthful information in areas where they have some familiarity."
TSA's Biometric Screening May Not Be Optional for Long
Surveillance tech that isn't banned often becomes mandatory eventually.
Don Blankenship Loses Libel Lawsuit Against Donald Trump, Jr., Who Called Blankenship a "Felon"
Coal baron and later Senate candidate Blankenship had been convicted of a misdemeanor, and served a year in prison for it; a federal judge has concluded that Blankenship hadn't introduced enough evidence that Trump, Jr. knew that he had erred in calling Blankenship a "felon."
My New Article "Abortion and Foot Voting in Post-Dobbs America: Prospects for Change"
Second in a two-part series published by Australian Outlook, a publication of the Australian Institute for International Affairs.
A Police Officer Killed a Man for Firing 'Celebratory' Shots Into the Air. Now, He Faces a Federal Lawsuit.
"Defendant Huber intentionally fired his service weapon at Decedent and killed him with gunfire while Decedent posed no threat of death or serious bodily harm to Defendant Huber," the lawsuit states.
Senators Ask DEA To Stop Buying Its Way Around Civil Liberties
Plus: Senate Republicans spar over TikTok and free speech, Americans can't agree on how to cut spending, and more...
Can Governmental Defendants Use Anti-SLAPP Statutes When They're Sued Based on Their Speech?
No, said the Florida Court of Appeal, interpreting the Florida statute; the California Supreme Court, interpreting the California statute, had held otherwise.
The Ruling Upholding the Gun Rights of People Subject to Restraining Orders Is Not As Crazy As You Might Think
The 5th Circuit noted that such orders can be issued without any credible evidence of a threat to others.
Idaho Bill Would Ban 'Transporting' a Minor for an Abortion Without Her Parents' Permission
"Taking that child across the border, and if that happens without the permission of the parent, that's where we'll be able to hold accountable those that would subvert a parent's right," said one of the bill's sponsors.
Blue-State AGs Have A Mifepristone Lawsuit of Their Own
And this lawsuit faces many of the same administrative law hurdles as does AHM v. FDA.
Court Rejects Idea Theft / "Hot News" Claim by Occasional Fox Guest Against Fox
Bonus: Calling someone a "nut" isn't libel.
Deirdre McCloskey: 'What We Want Is a Nonslave Society'
The economic historian and Magatte Wade, Alex Gladstein, Mohamad Machine-Chian, Tony Woodlief, and Tom Palmer are challenging authoritarians everywhere.
Could the RESTRICT Act Criminalize the Use of VPNs?
Plus: States consider mandatory anti-porn filters, tariffs create baby formula shortages (again), and more...
The Israeli Fight Over Judicial Review Highlights the Dangers of Unconstrained Democracy
Opponents of the proposed reforms are right that unlimited majority rule is a recipe for tyranny.
Victory for Property Rights in Highly Technical Supreme Court Decision
An unusual coalition of liberal and conservative justices rules that property owners have right to use Quiet Title Act to contest federal intrusion on their land, even in some cases where the statute of limitations may have passed.
AHM v. FDA: A Contrary View and a Rejoinder
ADF's Erin Hawley responds to my post on the jurisdictional problems in AHM v. FDA and I reply.
Sotomayor Grills Government Lawyer Over Law 'Criminalizing Words Related to Immigration'
The Supreme Court justice seemed willing to invalidate the federal law on First Amendment grounds.
The Government Is Turning Border Surveillance on Everyday Americans
As the government sets its sights on migrants crossing the border, native-born Americans have also come under its watchful eye.
Banning TikTok Is a Power the Federal Government Doesn't Deserve
Today, TikTok. Tomorrow, who knows?
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.
