Eugene Volokh is the Thomas M. Siebel Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford, and the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law Emeritus and Distinguished Research Professor at UCLA School of Law. Naturally, his posts here (like the opinions of the other bloggers) are his own, and not endorsed by any institution.
Eugene Volokh
Latest from Eugene Volokh
"The Alleged Misdeeds of Jewish Individuals, Elected Officials, Judges and Others in Myriad Circumstances,"
"including Plaintiff's divorce proceedings and criminal case."
Abortion, Colorado River, and Interpleader
The true superpower of the lawyer is to turn all questions into questions about procedure—often, about procedure about procedure.
#TheyLied Defamation Case Based on Allegations of False Accusations of Rape Can Go Forward
Anti-SLAPP motions generally can't be used to resolve he said/she said factual disputes in such matters.
Nothing New Under the Sun, Here as to Rules That Focus on a Defendant's Being Motivated by Ill Will
"[V]ery agreeable to the theorist, but utterly unfit for the practical purposes of society ...."
If Companies Set Up Ethnic Affinity Groups for Employees, Must They Also Set Them Up for Jewish Employees? [UPDATE: Microsoft Has Changed Its Policy to Include "Jews at Microsoft"]
Yes, argues the Brandeis Center in a letter to Microsoft.
$725K Settlement in University of North Texas Academic Freedom Case
The case settled while motions for summary judgment were pending; the plaintiff, Prof. Timothy Jackson, had prevailed against an earlier motion to dismiss, and the Fifth Circuit had also rejected defendants' appeal as to procedural matters.
Anti-Israel/Anti-Zionist Speech Doesn't Violate School Board Members' Ethics Obligations, When Said in the Member's Personal Capacity as Professor
But speech sharply critical of Reps. Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, and of Sharia (and thus perhaps of traditionalist Islam) had been found, by the same commission, to be unethical.
May Judge Order Divorcing Parent to Include Disclaimer With All Future Child Abuse Allegations?
A trial judge had found that the mother had "intentionally weaponized" child abuse reports, and required her to so state in any future child abuse allegations made to authorities.
Judge Denies Pseudonymity, Because Plaintiff's Sensitive Personal Information Wouldn't Likely Emerge in the Case—But then Disclosed That Information In Its Order
"[T]he heart of the district court's analysis in denying Brooks's initial motion was its conclusion that the litigation would not require Brooks to disclose the information that he had filed under seal. But, in some respects, the district court's order did just that—it put the information that Brooks had filed under seal on the public docket."
Government Employees May Generally Be Disciplined for Sufficiently Controversial Public Political Speech
From the Eleventh Circuit, a reminder that First Amendment protections against government employer action are much weaker than the protections against the government as sovereign (especially, but not only, when the speech is also "disrespectful, demeaning, rude, and insulting").
Georgia Trial Court Cites Likely AI-Hallucinated Cases (Possibly Borrowed from Party's Filing)
There have likely been hundreds of filings with AI-hallucinated citations in American courts, but this is the first time I've seen a court note that a judge had included such a citation.
Interesting Rule 11 / Incorrect Allegation Question in One of the Sean Combs Civil Cases
Can plaintiffs be sanctioned because they "refused to voluntarily dismiss [a defendant] after reviewing the additional information from his cell phone and bank records" that seems to exonerate him?
Florida Teachers Have No First Amendment Right to Indicate Their Preferred Pronouns and Honorifics in Class
So an Eleventh Circuit panel held today, by a 2-1 vote.
Lawsuit Against Google for Accurately Reporting Negative Stories About Plaintiff Dismissed
Plaintiff claimed that the search results violated his "right of publicity," and also that the output was defamatory because it "uses a 'negative algorithm' that promotes negative stories about Garmon while suppressing positive stories about him—or, at least, pushing the positive stories down the list of search results."
Are Plaintiffs More Eligible to Be Pseudonymous in Lawsuits Against the Government? Less Eligible?
Today's D.C. Circuit decision muddies the matter still further.
