When Is a Civil Forfeiture Based on Drug Offenses Excessive? Always.
The question of proportionality assumes that punishment is appropriate for peaceful conduct that violates no one's rights.
Supreme Court
Indiana Said the Government Should Be Able To Take Everything You Own if You Commit a Drug Crime. The State Supreme Court Wasn't Having It.
After eight years, Tyson Timbs finally gets to keep his Land Rover—once and for all.
Gorsuch Pushes Stronger Fourth Amendment Protections
Can a cop enter a suspect's home without a warrant if they're in pursuit and have probable cause to believe the suspect has committed a misdemeanor?
Here's Why California's 'Assault Weapon' Ban Is Unconstitutional
Such laws arbitrarily prohibit rifles that are commonly used for legal purposes.
The Trouble With 'Common Good Originalism'
A new conservative faction embraces "authoritative rule for the common good."
Clarence Thomas Declares War on Big Tech
Like a number of other modern conservatives, Thomas seems to think that Twitter and other tech companies are effectively censoring right-of-center views.
Supreme Court Places Limits on What Actions Violate Federal Hacking Law
Prosecutors like to use the law against people who clearly weren't engaged in hacking. The Court is trying to rein them in.
Public University Threatens To Monitor and Punish Off-Campus Student Behavior
Doing the wrong thing at an off-campus party could lead to on-campus consequences.
10 Cops Got Qualified Immunity After Holding a Shackled Man Facedown Until He Died
The Supreme Court will soon announce if it'll consider an appeal.
The Fear That Abolishing Qualified Immunity Would Expose Cops to Ruinous Personal Liability Is a Big Fat Red Herring
A study of civil rights cases found that "police officers are virtually always indemnified" by their employers.
Do Anti-BDS Laws Restrict Speech?
The line between commercial decisions and advocacy is not as clear as opponents of anti-Israel boycotts suggest.
Federal Cops Attacked a 70-Year-Old Vietnam Veteran and Then Avoided Accountability in Court
The Supreme Court declines to hear arguments in Oliva v. Nivar.
A City Got Protections From Qualified Immunity After a Cop Killed a Man. SCOTUS Won't Hear the Case.
The decision will make it even more difficult for victims to hold the government accountable when their rights are violated.
A Euclid Cop Killed a Man Who Had Been Sleeping in His Car. The Cop Can't Be Sued. The City Can't Be, Either.
The Supreme Court has a chance to fix this. The stakes are high.
Will Pro-Life Politicians Face a Backlash If the Supreme Court Lets Them Restrict Abortion?
National surveys obscure large regional variations in public opinion about abortion limits.
Get a Warrant, Supreme Court Tells Cops Who Seized Guns From Home Without Due Process
Plus: On SATs and bias, what changed when Texas lifted its mask mandate, and more...
Supreme Court Won't Make Ban on Non-Unanimous Jury Convictions Retroactive
Bad news for hundreds of imprisoned defendants in Louisiana and Oregon
Americans Don't Want Schools To Punish Off-Campus Speech
Only students support extending the power to penalize speech, raising concerns about what they’re learning in school.
A Supreme Court Decision That Did Lasting Damage to the 4th Amendment
How pretextual traffic stops got the judicial stamp of approval.
Does This Elderly Veteran Have Any Recourse Against the Federal Cops Who Brutally Assaulted Him?
SCOTUS will soon decide whether to hear José Oliva’s argument that he should be allowed to sue V.A. officers for violating his Fourth Amendment rights.
SCOTUS Hears a Crack Sentencing Case That Shows How the Drug War Piles One Cruel Absurdity on Top of Another
Tarahrick Terry was sentenced to more than 15 years in prison after he was caught with less than four grams.
Cops Who Killed a Man While Holding Him in a Hog-Tie Position Got Qualified Immunity. The Appeals Court Wasn't Having It.
Up for debate was whether or not it was "clearly established" that officers cannot apply injurious force to a subject who isn't resisting.
Gorsuch and Kavanaugh Butt Heads in Major Immigration Case
“Our only job today, is to give the law’s terms their ordinary meanings and, in that small way, ensure that the federal government does not exceed its statutory license.”
This School Punished a Cheerleader for an Off-Campus Snapchat. Does That Violate the First Amendment?
The Supreme Court weighs the power of school officials to punish students for off-campus speech.
SCOTUS Will Decide Whether the Right To Bear Arms Extends Beyond Your Doorstep
New York, like several other states, limits public carrying of handguns to the favored few.
SCOTUS Just Agreed To Hear a Major New Second Amendment Case
The Supreme Court will hear arguments next term in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Corlett.
Warrantless Border Searches Draw Call for Supreme Court Action
The feds say they can paw through your phone and laptop any time you enter or leave the country.
Can Cops Pull You Over for Hanging an Air Freshener From Your Rearview Mirror? You'd Better Check.
Bans on dangling objects are just one example of the myriad petty rules that give police the power to stop nearly any driver at will.
The Government Seized This Innocent Man's Car Without Due Process. SCOTUS Won't Hear the Case.
"How can an ordinary person afford to wait years after the government takes their car?"
Is Stephen Breyer About To Retire? His Clerk-Hiring Spree Suggests Otherwise.
Progressive activists are pushing the 82-year-old justice to step down.
Congressional Democrats Want To Vote Themselves Into a Supreme Court Majority
Plus: U.S. will finally withdraw troops from Afghanistan, Mastercard caves to religious groups on porn, and more...
Prohibited Prayer and the Limits of Public Health Authority
The Supreme Court reaffirms that COVID-19 regulations must comply with the First Amendment.
Supreme Court Blocks California's COVID-19 Restrictions on Private Prayer Groups
The majority reminds the 9th Circuit that the First Amendment puts limits on COVID-19 policies.
Joe Biden, Who Says He's 'Not a Fan of Court Packing,' Just Created a Presidential Commission to Study Court Packing
The Presidential Commission on the Supreme Court of the United States will examine “the membership and size of the Court.”
Justice Thomas Wonders When Supreme Court Will Have To Consider Social Media's Private Deplatforming Power
A moot case about Trump blocking tweets leads to concerns that tech companies have too much control over speech.
Shooting a Fleeing Suspect Who Escapes Still Triggers the Fourth Amendment, Says SCOTUS
"The application of physical force to the body with the intent to restrain is a seizure, even if the person does not submit and is not subdued."
Sonia Sotomayor Questions Warrantless Gun Seizure in Big Fourth Amendment Case
“There was no immediate danger,” Sotomayor said, yet the police “decided on their own to go in and seize the gun.”
The 9th Circuit Says the Right To Bear Arms Does Not Extend Beyond Your Doorstep
According to the dissent, the appeals court "has decided that the Second Amendment does not mean what it says."
Supreme Court Agrees To Hear Fight Over Boston Bomber's Death Sentence
President Joe Biden campaigned on ending the federal death penalty, but he’s been quiet about it since taking office.
'If You Wear a Federal Badge, You Can Inflict Excessive Force on Someone With Little Fear of Liability,' Complains Judge Don Willett
A federal judge protests the Supreme Court’s “rights-without-remedies” Bivens doctrine.
Cops Who Assaulted and Arrested a Man for Standing Outside His Own House Got Qualified Immunity. SCOTUS Won't Hear the Case.
The Supreme Court delivers another blow to a victim of egregious police abuse.
Biden Justice Department Sides Against Free Speech Advocates in Big First Amendment Case
The federal government weighs in on Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L..
A Promising Qualified Immunity Decision From a Potential Biden SCOTUS Nominee
Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson denied qualified immunity to the officers involved in Patterson v. United States.
California's Requirement That Nonprofits Disclose Donor Information Poses a Grave Threat to Freedom of Association
A broad coalition of groups is asking the Supreme Court to overturn the state's policy.
Biden Should Nominate Judges Who Battled the Government in Court
More criminal defense lawyers, public defenders, and civil rights litigators may soon be appointed to the federal bench.
Ayanna Pressley Revives Justin Amash's Bill To End Qualified Immunity
The Ending Qualified Immunity Act of 2021 would no longer let state actors violate your rights without consequence.
So Long as You Carry a Cellphone, the Government Can Track You
A phone in your pocket may as well be a GPS beacon strapped to your ankle.
SCOTUS Rules Against an Innocent Man Who Was Choked and Beaten by Cops, but He May Still Get His Day in Court
The justices did not address one of James King's key arguments, which the 6th Circuit will now consider.