The Supreme Court's decision in Tinker is viewed as the high-water mark for students' First Amendment rights, but Justice Black's strident dissent-not the majority-spoke for most Americans at the time.
Episode 231 of the Cyberlaw Podcast
Will AI save the Internet from Putin - and Drudge? Episode 232 of the Cyberlaw Podcast
It includes contributions by a variety of legal scholars and commentators, including myself.
The Supreme Court is not omnipotent, but neither is it impotent, as its constitutional decisions from public schools helpfully illuminate.
For good or ill, politicians are politicians.
Legal scholar and National Constitution Center President Jeffrey Rosen explains how many of the Constitution's safeguards against "mob rule" have frayed. His description of the problem is compelling, though he is less strong on possible solutions.
His testimony that Carpenter is a "game changer" could be a game changer for bulk data collection
And why write dissenting and concurring opinions?
"the whole document tilts toward liberty"--more on Judge Kavanaugh's judicial philosophy
A Republican Senator discusses natural rights, majoriarianism, linguistic ambiguity and the difficulties of identifying original meaning
What he said about his judicial philosophy
A faithless elector feels the Bern, tasing a pregnant woman in the stomach, tasing a man in diabetic shock, and crosses in public parks.
The Office for Civil Rights decision is in some ways opaque and equivocal, but the message to universities seems pretty powerful -- such decisions about enforcing Title VI of the Civil Rights of Act may turn on whether the university tolerates certain criticisms of Israel that OCR has now labeled "anti-Semitic."
Oregon law apparently doesn't ban public urination -- but it does ban littering, especially when it "create[s] an objectionable stench."
Stanford historian Jennifer Burns' long march through a terrible book
What you can do to help protect free speech on campus.
The weird interrelationship between harassment law and campus free speech
I've blogged on these issues, and here's an article on them.
The lead essay on this month's Cato Unbound is my article outlining why the text and original meaning of the Constitution do not give the the federal government any general power to restrict immigration. There will be responses by critics, and ongoing discussion until October.
If you believe that unconstitutional speech codes are a scandal at public universities, two recent cases should worry you.
So a federal judge just held.
So a Sixth Circuit panel just held, and it also concluded that the statements weren't actionable under Kentucky law.
My National Review Online Column After 9/11: In praise of the "unorganized" militia
The defendant, Imani Pennant, reportedly said that there's a web site that helps people create such orders.
A very brief history of the rise and fall (and potential rise again) of campus speech codes. [UPDATE: Very sorry, at first accidentally labeled this as my post -- it's actually Greg Lukianoff's & Adam Goldstein's.]
"The irony is that Kavanaugh is a remarkably un-Trumpian nominee.... The notion that any Trump nominee is illegitimate because he would shield Trump from hypothetical future subpoenas or prosecutions is belied by history. Nixon's appointments voted against him in United States vs. Nixon, and Clinton's appointments voted against him in Clinton vs. Jones."
The Sixth Circuit reaffirms this, including for sexual assault accusations, in a case against the University of Michigan; and the court also allows plaintiff to proceed with his claim that the process was biased against him because of his sex.
Campus mental health, freedom of speech, and government policy.
The Supreme Court needs to have the power to overturn "settled" constitutional decisions in order to prevent the permanent entrenchment of terrible precedents.
Academic discourse is increasingly under threat from activist professors.
An interesting new Younger abstention case from the Ninth Circuit, arising in our challenge to Washington's very broad criminal harassment statute.
Satanic standing, Studebaker, and breaking into prison.
There is no "clearly established" First Amendment rights of public university professional school students to engage in such speech, a federal court holds.
The state pays (and generously) to avoid the pending cert. petition in Allah v. Milling
Will the new law have the unintended consequence of accelerating the trend toward hospitals' closing down their emergency rooms?
While all eyes focused on the Kavanaugh hearings (and an "anonymous" op-ed), a court heard argument in the latest ObamaCare challenge.
Conservative support for racial profiling is deeply problematic. But the e-mail leaked by Sen. Cory Booker actually shows Brett Kavanaugh advocating "race-neutral" post-9/11 security policies.
