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
Our Constitution: "Well-Regulated Democracy," "In Its Principles … Purely Democratical"
I keep hearing the same (pointless, I think) claims that America is a republic, not a democracy. It's both a republic and a democracy.
Cyberstalking Conviction for E-Mails to Nebraska Legislature Candidate Reversed
The Eighth Circuit tries to rein in the criminalization of the intentional infliction of emotional distress tort.
"The Pleading Needs More Hemingway, Less Faulkner"
"Clocking in at 443 words and almost one-and-one-half pages in length, Paragraph 14 is a series of run-on sentences and sentence fragments ...."
Cloudflare Says Its Online Security Services Won't Be Canceled Based on a Site's Ideology
"Just as the telephone company doesn't terminate your line if you say awful, racist, bigoted things, we have concluded ... that turning off security services because we think what you publish is despicable is the wrong policy. To be clear, just because we did it in a limited set of cases before doesn't mean we were right when we did. Or that we will ever do it again."
Court Rejects Suit by Volunteer Yale Psych Professor Fired for Public Diagnosis of Trump and Alan Dershowitz
"In January 2020, you called for 'an involuntary evaluation' of President Trump, and you said, 'I am beginning to believe a mental health hold ... will become inevitable.' That same month, you publicly suggested that President Trump, Rudolph Giuliani and Alan Dershowitz had a 'shared psychosis.'"
San Jose Unified School District Likely Discriminated Against Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Based on …
the FCA's requirement that leaders "abide by a Statement of Faith, which includes the belief that sexual relations should be limited within the context of a marriage between a man and a woman" -- so holds a Ninth Circuit's panel.
"It's Illegal for People Under 21 to Buy Canisters of Whipped Cream in NY"
UPDATE (see end of post): Perhaps this is just an example of the "chilling effect," where a law deters even behavior that it may not actually cover (perhaps in part because of how the law's own backers had initially described it).
Third Circuit Sends Down to District Court the Second Amendment Challenge to N.J.'s Ban on >10-Round Magazines
The appellate court would leave the matter for the district court to decide in the first instance, subject to appellate review; Judge Matey dissented, arguing that the appellate court should have considered the issue directly.
Georgia Supreme Court on Sincerity and Religious Exemptions
An unusually detailed discussion of what factors court should consider in deciding whether a religious exemption request is sincere (generally a threshold requirement for the request to stand any chance of prevailing).
Court Upholds Injunction Barring Distribution of Material Recorded at National Abortion Federation Conference
The defendants, the court held, had "knowingly, voluntarily, and intelligently waived any First Amendment rights in disclosing the information they obtained at the NAF conferences" by agreeing to that as a condition of being admitted to the conference.
Schoolteachers' First Amendment Rights to Publicly Criticize Transgender Pronoun Policies,
including saying "I will not affirm that a biological boy can be a girl and vice versa."
False Advertising Claim Over Allegations That "Michael" Included Tracks by Jackson Imitator Can Proceed
Commercial advertising for fully protected speech is treated as "commercial speech," and can be restricted on a strict liability basis if it misleads consumers (at least in this sort of situation).
Media Intervenors' Argument Supporting Unsealing Mar-A-Lago Search Warrant Affidavit
The search warrant and some related materials have been unsealed—but the affidavit is where the details on the justifications for the search would be, and the government has argued this has to remain secret, at least for now.
