Does the Constitution Protect the Right To Get High?
Columbia law professor David Pozen recalls the controversy provoked by early anti-drug laws and the hope inspired by subsequent legal assaults on prohibition.
Constitution
This Tax Week, Remember That the Federal Income Tax Is Relatively New
There are many pervasive myths about the U.S. tax code. Here are a few.
Social Media Platforms Have Property Rights Too
The push to regulate social media content infringes on rights guaranteed by the Fifth Amendment.
Are U.S. Strikes on Houthis Constitutional?
Joe Biden is the latest of a string of presidents to deny Congress its rightful role in war making.
Federal Appeals Court Says Texas Inmate's Decade-Long Lawsuit Over Sleep Deprivation Can Keep Going
Michael Garrett and other Texas inmates get less than four hours of sleep a night. He argues it's cruel and unusual punishment.
Study Estimates Nearly 96% of Private Property Is Open to Warrantless Searches
The Institute for Justice says its data show that a century-old Supreme Court doctrine created a huge exception to the Fourth Amendment.
Historic Preservation Board Stops Family Removing KKK Supporter's Initial From Front of their House
Kristy Kay Money and Rolf Jacob Sraubhaar are now suing the city of San Marcos, Texas, saying they're being forced to keep a Klan-linked symbol on the front of their house is a physical taking.
SCOTUS Takes on Chevron Deference
New Jersey fishermen are challenging a 40-year-old precedent that gives executive agencies too much power.
Utah Tells the Feds To Pound Sand
The Beehive State joins a growing wave of defiance aimed at Washington, D.C.
Justice Department Finds Unconstitutional Conditions in 3 More Mississippi Prisons
Mississippi's prisons are falling apart, run by gangs, and riddled with sexual assaults, a Justice Department report says.
Texas Sues Pornhub for Failing to Check IDs
A federal judge in an ongoing case called the porn age-check scheme unconstitutional. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton doesn't seem to care.
Kids Have First Amendment Rights Too, Federal Judge Reminds State Lawmakers
Banning people under age 16 from accessing social media without parental consent "is a breathtakingly blunt instrument" for reducing potential harms, the judge writes.
Houston Faces First Amendment Lawsuit for Cracking Down on Feeding the Homeless
Food Not Bombs activists argue that feeding the needy is core political speech, and that they don't need the city's permission to do it.
Politics Created the Border Crisis
Plus: A listener asks if libertarians are too obsessed with economic growth.
The Twisted Logic of Greg Abbott's Border Policy
Undocumented immigrants aren’t the same as an invading army, but the Texas governor keeps acting like they are.
Federal Judge Questions 'Evolving Standards' Test for Cruel and Unusual Punishment
The Supreme Court judges Eighth Amendment cases with "evolving standards of decency." Some conservative jurists don't like it.
Trump Wouldn't Be the First Non-Confederate Barred From Office by the 14th Amendment
The weird story of Victor Berger, the Espionage Act, and "Shoeless" Joe Jackson.
FBI Seized $86 Million From People Not Suspected of Any Crime. A Federal Court Will Decide if That's Legal.
On Thursday, a federal appeals court will hear about the FBI's "blatant scheme to circumvent" the Fourth Amendment.
Laws Requiring Permission to Obtain Guns Look Vulnerable
The 4th Circuit’s rejection of Maryland’s handgun licensing system suggests similar schemes in other states are unconstitutional.
Do You Still Have the Right to a Jury Trial?
The Supreme Court will consider whether federal agencies’ administrative judges violate the Seventh Amendment.
The Best Hope to Rein in Rent Control Is Lurking on the Supreme Court's Docket
The U.S. Supreme Court keeps putting off deciding whether to take up a challenge to New York's rent control scheme.
Tennessee to Pay $125,000 to Settle Lawsuit by Man Arrested for Posting Meme Mocking Dead Cop
Joshua Garton spent nearly two weeks in jail for "manufacturing and disseminating a harassing photograph on social media." A First Amendment lawsuit quickly followed.
Louisiana Mother of Autistic Child Hit by Teacher Files Supreme Court Petition
School officials in three states are effectively immune from lawsuits over excessive corporal punishment. A Louisiana mother is asking the Supreme Court to step in.
The Original Meaning of the Privileges or Immunities Clause
What Swift v. Tyson has to say to The Slaughter-House Cases
California Environmental Regulations Are Driving Truckers Out of Pennsylvania
The Golden State's new rules—which Pennsylvania's Environmental Quality Board opted to copy—will increase the cost of a new truck by about one-third.
Lawsuit: Mississippi Town Declared Houses 'Blighted' Without Notice
Mississippi only gives property owners 10 days to challenge a blight finding that could lead to their house being seized through eminent domain.
Can a Marylander be the Senator from California?
Why Article I's residence requirement applies to appointees.
Is Sen.-to-be Butler Eligible to Represent California?
The residence question is closer than it might appear.
Federal Judge Rules Texas Anti-Drag Law Violates the First Amendment
The judge ruled that the law was unconstitutionally overbroad, vague, and viewpoint discrimination.
Federal Judge Declines To Stop Drag Show Ban at Texas College
The judge ruled that drag performances are not inherently expressive and that schools could regulate "vulgar and lewd" conduct.
New Light on the ERA?
A long history of amending resolutions with legal effect.
How Hippies Saved the Fourth Amendment
The Nixon administration did everything it could to curb antiwar activism. Then the courts said it had gone too far.
How Affirmative Action Lost at the Supreme Court
Preferential college admissions violated the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause.
The Sticky Spaghetti School of Constitutional Law
Politicians are throwing laws at the wall and seeing what sticks.
Penis Squeezing Not Protected by Qualified Immunity
Plus: FIRE fights college's vague "greater good" policy, Biden administration pushes double talk on tariffs, and more...
The Biden Administration's Antitrust Changes Would Be Great for Bureaucrats—and Bad for Consumers
The guidelines would ignore decades of academic findings about how firm concentration can have a positive impact on consumers' welfare.
'This Is Not an Emergency'
How Florida prison officials let a man's prostate cancer progress until he was paralyzed and terminally ill.
Law Profs Tout Qualified Immunity for Unconstitutional Gun Restrictions
Promoting impunity for violating rights as a policy tool? What could go wrong?
Police Seized Innocent People's Property and Kept It for Years. What Will the Supreme Court Do?
Civil forfeiture is a highly unaccountable practice. The justices have the opportunity to make it a bit less so.
A 2007 Debate Provoked by Richard Posner Illuminates the Current Clash Over Judicial Power in Israel
The appeals court judge argued that the Israeli Supreme Court had usurped the role of legislators.
AALS Online Symposium on New Books in Constitutional Law
Presenters include Kermit Roosevelt (UPenn), Samantha Barbas (U. of Buffalo), Michael Mannheimer (Northern Kentucky Univ.), and myself.
Colorado Can't Force a Graphic Designer To Create Same-Sex Wedding Websites, Supreme Court Rules
The decision reverses a terrible previous decision by the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Supreme Court Confirms That State Legislatures Can't Ignore the Constitution When Writing Election Rules
Chief Justice John Roberts decisively rejected the independent state legislature theory.
Did Trump Break a Law That Shouldn't Exist?
Plus: A rundown of recent nonsensical proposals for constitutional amendments
