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
Opinion Granting Bail to Rumeysa Ozturk (Lead Author of Op-Ed Urging Boycott of Israel)
Ozturk is here on a student visa, and she has been detained while the Trump Administration is trying to deport her.
Seemingly Nonexistent Citation in Anthropic Expert's Declaration [UPDATE: Apparently Caused by Lawyer's Misuse of Claude to Format Citations]
UPDATE 5/15/2025 (post moved up): Anthropic's lawyers filed a declaration stating that the error was not the expert's, but stemmed from the (unwise) use of Claude AI to format citations.
Court Dismisses Palestinian Muslim Student Activist's Harassment Complaint Against Northwestern Law School, But Discrimination Claim Can Go Forward
The claims stemmed from the student's claim that classmates had harassed her, "doxed" her, and falsely accused her of assault in connection with the protests, and that as an indirect result she lost a job with a major law firm.
Trump Administration Likely Violated American Bar Association's First Amendment Rights
A federal court holds that "a series of grants with the ABA that funded services to victims of domestic and sexual violence" were terminated because the ABA had joined a lawsuit against the Administration.
Defamation Lawsuit Against Def Con Cybersecurity Conference Dismissed
"[I]t is irrelevant that Defendant Def Con did not know at the time the Transparency Reports were published whether Hadnagy had or had not engaged in sexual misconduct. Rather, if the sexual misconduct implications were in fact true at the time the Transparency Reports were published, Def Con is shielded by the truth defense."
AI Hallucination in Filings Involving 14th-Largest U.S. Law Firm Lead to $31K in Sanctions
The judge finds "a collective debacle"—possibly caused, I think, by two firms working together and the communications problems this can cause—though "conclude[s] that additional financial or disciplinary sanctions against the individual attorneys are not warranted."
Iowa S. Ct. Adopts Federal Courts' Presumption Against Pseudonymity
Specifically, the court holds that parents can't sue under a pseudonym together with their minor child, even though state rules provides that minors' names are pseudonymized.
"This Case Has Ended Up in a Rather Confusing Procedural Neverland," "in a Peter Pan-esque State of Immaturity,"
"preventing any court from adjudicating on the merits." (Lawyers' true superpower: The power to turn every question into a question about procedure.)
Reasonable to Deny Pseudonymity to Plaintiff Who Seeks to Conceal That She Has Epilepsy
So holds the Eleventh Circuit.
Claim Can Go Forward Against American Publisher That Allegedly Knew Knew Author It Paid Was Hamas Hostage-Holder
The claim is under the Alien Tort Statute, which allows lawsuits in U.S. courts for aiding and abetting terrorism (among other things).
Festivus + Jews + Kanye West + Litigation
"Unlike 'Festivus,' the fictional holiday created by Jewish artists, wherein 'worshippers' are permitted to air their personal grievances but once per year," "Ye adheres to an artistic vision in which he is unencumbered to share his grievances at any time of the year—and so he does."
