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. He is also the co-host of the Free Speech Unmuted podcast.
Eugene Volokh
Latest from Eugene Volokh
D.C. Circuit Rejects Lawsuit Over Rep. Adam Schiff's 2019 Requests to Internet Companies to Deal with "Vaccine-Related Misinformation"
“Appellants offer no causal link that suggests it was an isolated inquiry by a single Member of Congress that prompted policy changes across multiple unrelated social media platforms.”
Submit Your Articles to the Journal of Free Speech Law
UPDATE: "One of our best experiences with a journal yet. Rigorous reviews, supportive editors & simple process. This is what publishing should be like!"
Federal Disability Law Likely Requires Schools to Mandate Masks
when children "at heightened risk of severe injury or death from COVID-19" are present, holds the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit.
Court Concludes, for TRO, that Federal Disability Law Does Require School Districts to Mandate Masks
"It is the combination of these measures [vaccination, masking, quarantining, contract tracing, social distancing, and increased building ventilation] that make them effective and, without any one of them, individuals with disabilities ... are at increased risk of contracting the virus and severe illness or death."
Federal Disability Law Doesn't Require School Districts to Mandate Masks
"Plaintiffs' position if accepted, would essentially graft the recommendations of the CDC into the ADA and the Rehabilitation Act. And as a practical matter, elevating CDC recommendations to the level of law would serve to take many decisions relating to health policy and directly impacting citizens out of the hands of their elected representatives and put them into the hands of unknown and unanswerable CDC decisionmakers and unelected and unanswerable federal judges."
"Belarusian Government Officials Charged With Aircraft Piracy for Diverting … Flight … to Arrest Dissident Journalist"
Arrr! Or, as we say in the Cyrillosphere, Аррр!
Going in for My Spoliation Surgery Tomorrow
A trial court had held that nonemergency spinal surgery was “spoliation of evidence” in a case stemming from a spinal injury, because “the preservation of [] body parts in an intact state available to all parties for review is essential.”
Judge Admonished for Ad Which Said He "Got Into Law in Part to Advocate for Marginalized Communities"
The ad was an ad for a college that he had attended, though the Washington Commission on Judicial Conduct concluded that it could also be reasonably viewed as a campaign ad.
Thursday Open Thread
What's on your mind?
Washington S. Ct. Upholds $18M Fine for Violating Campaign Disclosure Rules
The court rejected an Excessive Fines Clause challenge (by a 5-4 vote) and a First Amendment challenge.
Lawyer Lin Wood Was Wrongly Faulted by Delaware Trial Court
So holds the state supreme court, vacating the trial court’s revocation of Wood’s temporary authorization to represent Carter Page in a Delaware libel case.
"This Case Stems from the Suppression of Academic Scholarship at the University of North Texas"
University’s removal of professor from journal editorship may violate First Amendment, holds a federal court in the Journal of Schenkerian Studies controversy.
The U.S. Is Both a Republic and a Democracy
Don't just take it from me; take it from the Framers and other early American statesmen: "Democracy" has long included representative democracy as well as direct democracy, and "Republic" was used to refer to regimes that were not representative.
"The Law Has Already Sawed That Claim in Half"
The latest from Paul Alan Levy (Public Citizen), pushing back against threats of trademark litigation over parody.
Crime Victims Allege Baltimore Police Department Unconstitutionally Seized (and Destroyed) Their Property
A federal court has allowed the case to go forward, including on a theory that the Department does this as a "pattern and practice."
Claim that "Certificate of Need" Law Lacks a Rational Basis Can Go Forward
“[T]he great deference due state economic regulation does not demand judicial blindness to the history of a challenged rule or the context of its adoption nor does it require courts to accept nonsensical explanations for regulation.”
How North Dakota Is More Like Windows than UNIX
If your official name is YATES, you can't (and presumably needn't) file a petition to change it to Yates. "Petitioners have offered no authority or reasoned argument that there is any legal significance to the capitalization of their names."
No TRO for Prominent but Pseudonymous Surgeon Suing the University of Michigan for Allegedly Improper Suspension
The judge also says the plaintiff's request for pseudonymity was inadequately supported.
Sex Discrimination Lawsuit Over Alleged Wrongful Title IX Suspension Against UCLA Can Go Forward
“Particularly given the ultimate findings of Roe’s numerous fabrications, Mr. Zeck’s statement plausibly supports an inference that the Regents prejudged Roe’s allegations (and Doe’s defenses thereto) during its investigation on the basis of their respective genders.”
"DeFi Gives Financial Privacy — Will Regulation Take It Away?"
Particular twists: "A right to use rights-protecting technologies?" and "constitutional rights to technologies that protect other constitutional rights."
Thursday Open Thread
What's on your mind?
