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
Tuesday Media Recommendations: Science Fiction and Fantasy Books
Post your recommendations in the comments; other weeks, there'll be other posts for other genres and other formats.
"Equity Training" Requirement for Public Employees Didn't Violate First Amendment, Even When …
employees were required to "correctly" answer multiple choice questions based on the training content.
Psych Professor's Lawsuit Over Alleged Contract Nonrenewal Based on Speech About Gender Dysphoria Can Go Forward
Prof. Allan Josephson (formerly of the University of Louisville medical school) claims his contract wasn't renewed because "he expressed his thoughts on treating childhood gender dysphoria during a panel discussion sponsored by a conservative think tank [the Heritage Foundation]."
Tuesday Media Recommendations: Historical Fiction Books
Post your recommendations in the comments; other weeks, there'll be other posts for other genres and other formats.
Court Lets Plaintiff Suing Over "Pro-Hamas Demonstrations at Northwestern" Proceed Pseudonymously
Plaintiff had alleged that being publicly identified would put him at risk of physical harm.
Ruth Shalit Barrett's Defamation Lawsuit Against The Atlantic Survives in Part
The opinion includes some interesting discussion of defamation by implication.
Journal of Free Speech Law: "Speech Regulation and Tobacco Harm Reduction," by Jonathan H. Adler & Jacob James Rich
The final article from the Information as Medicine symposium.
Journal of Free Speech Law: "Freedom of the Test," by Prof. Alex Tabarrok
An article from the Information as Medicine symposium.
QAnon "Patriot Reporter" Claims Newspaper Libeled Him by Saying He Had Admitted to "Sexual Relationship" with 15-Year-Old
But he loses: "As a result of Godlewski's guilty plea to 'inappropriate text [m]essages' and 'contact' ..., as set forth in the Affidavit of Probable Cause quoting the offending text messages admitting and memorializing a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old minor, Godlewski is collaterally estopped from denying his participation in [the] sexual relationship ...."
Journal of Free Speech Law: "The NIH's Genomic Data Sharing Policy and the First Amendment," by Prof. Adam Candeub
An article from the Information as Medicine symposium.
Claim That Someone Is "Racist" or "White Supremacist" Is Opinion and Thus Not Libel, Though …
claims that someone has engaged in specific conduct may be factual assertions and therefore potentially libelous.
No, Not That David Sackler; No, Not That State Law
Law students: Take that Choice of Law (often called Conflicts of Laws) course your law school offers; it can be tremendously important.
Fire Department Chaplain Fired for Blog Post About Transgender Controversies Can Go Forward With Lawsuit
The chaplain's post "discuss[ed] 'how God designed each person as male or female, and that sex is immutable'" and "stated it is unfair to allow males to compete in women's sports."
California Social Media Platform Reporting Mandate Likely Violates the First Amendment
The mandate required platforms to, among other things, report to the state "how the terms of service define and address (a) hate speech or racism; (b) extremism or radicalization; (c) disinformation or misinformation; (d) harassment; and (e) foreign political interference, as well as statistics on content that was flagged by the social media company as belonging to any of the categories."
N.Y. Community Education Council Speech Restrictions Likely Violate First Amendment
"The Community Guidelines' prohibitions of, inter alia, 'homophobia, transphobia, misogyny, ableism, racism, or any other forms of oppressive beliefs or behaviors,' 'name-calling,' and 'disrespect' are prohibitions against ideas that offend, and therefore discriminate on the basis of viewpoint in violation of the First Amendment."
$1.85M Award in #TheyLied Lawsuit Over False Accusation of Rape
The award consisted of $1.5M compensatory damages and $350K punitives.
