Short Circuit: An inexhaustive weekly compendium of rulings from the federal courts of appeal
Please enjoy the latest edition of Short Circuit, a weekly feature written by a bunch of people at the Institute for Justice
New cert petition: In March, the Eighth Circuit created a circuit split over how to calculate the just compensation owed to property owners when private companies condemn their land for natural gas pipelines. According to every other court, state-law rules govern property, so private companies have to pay you whatever state law says it’s worth. But the Eighth Circuit says everybody else has been getting it wrong for 40 years and that private pipeline companies must be allowed to soar, like birds, free from pesky state property laws. And yet, “every other circuit court is wrong” seems like a job for SCOTUS, so that’s where we’re going.
New on the Short Circuit podcast: A crazy high speed chase leads to a crazy prosecution of a dude who was high and happened to own a rifle.
- FBI agent accepts $6,500 from a friend to look up contact information in a non-public database for tenants who are leasing property in D.C. so that he can buy the tenants’ right to purchase the property and resell those rights at a profit. The (now-former) agent is charged with and convicted of bribery. D.C. Circuit: Looks like bribery to us. Dissent (furiose): This “ill-considered,” “[i]nscrutable,” “profoundly disturbing” decision “converts ethical constraints into federal criminal offenses.”
- Your summarist finds it outrageous—indefensible!—that some judges brazenly use the phrase “Hobson’s choice” to refer to mere dilemmas. In perhaps more significant news, the D.C. Circuit has granted mandamus relief to the Trump administration, which was facing a criminal contempt inquiry for removing alleged members of the transnational criminal gang Tren de Aragua to El Salvador in defiance of a TRO telling them not to. Judge Katsas argues the TRO was ambiguous. Judge Rao argues that there are serious separation-of-powers concerns. And Judge Pillard, in dissent, is not having any of it.
- Slovenian-American contender for the Most Interesting Man in the World (bodyguard, Special Forces member, kickboxing champion, model, football player, author, and man who has “done some very bad things“) claims that he discovered billions in cash scattered across Africa following the death of Muammar Gaddafi. He hired a lawyer to repatriate the money to the U.S. but was unsuccessful due to skeptical law enforcement. He sued the lawyer and some feds who, he alleges, lied to him to try to discover the cash and get it for themselves. D.C. Circuit: Cool story, but it’s not actionable.
- Little Vic, once the acting boss of the Colombo crime family, was sentenced to life in prison in the 1990s for mob things. Second Circuit (2022): No compassionate release (despite dementia leaving him thinking he’s the warden). Second Circuit (2025): Even though one of his nine guilty counts is for using a gun in a crime of violence under a statute that has since been held unconstitutional, that does not mean he gets resentencing. Instead, the judgment can be amended to remove the bad count and leave the balance of the sentence (which is still life).
- Congress: Medicare may negotiate maximum prices for certain pharmaceuticals. Drug companies that don’t reach a bargain face the unpalatable choice of paying excise taxes or withdrawing all the company’s drugs from Medicare. Drug company: That violates all the rights. Second Circuit: It does not. Congress drives a hard bargain, but you’re technically free to opt out.
- Richmond, Va. man driving with fake temporary tags is pulled over. (Weirdly, officers had pulled over two other cars with the exact same fake tag number within the previous few hours.) He flees; he’s caught; contraband is found in his car. District court: Dismiss the indictment. There was probable cause for the stop, but statistical evidence shows traffic laws were big-time selectively enforced against Black motorists in Richmond. Fourth Circuit: Reversed. There’s no evidence he was pulled over because of his race.
- Did federal and state officers need a warrant before having a drug dog sniff the exterior of an Owings Mills, Md. apartment door, in a multi-unit complex, accessible via a common hallway? Fourth Circuit: We now hold precedentially what we’ve previously held in two unpublished opinions: No. No reasonable expectation of privacy in contraband—the only thing that a trained dog alerts to—nor is the exterior of the door protected “curtilage” akin to a front porch. “[D]og sniffs are different.”
- Allegation: Appomattox County, Va. high school staff are initially supportive of 14-year-old’s gender transition. But fellow students are decidedly not, threatening her with rape, death. When she reports the threats, a school counselor and a police officer pressure her to recant. The teen’s parents are not notified of the transition or the threats; she runs away from home and is abducted by sex traffickers. Fourth Circuit: It’s possible the school did not take sufficient steps to protect her from other students. Case undismissed. Dissent: Sure, officials could have done more or different things to protect her, but there’s no disputing officials did some things, which is all Title IX requires.
- In Jim Crow times, states used to require would-be voters to do things like write out their ages in months and days. Happily, federal law now bars such immaterial paperwork requirements. Plaintiffs: Like Texas’s 2021 requirement that mail-in voters write out their driver’s license numbers (or an alternative ID number), which has resulted in tens of thousands of legitimate ballots getting rejected—in part because the driver’s license database is not particularly accurate. Meanwhile, there are other, ample measures in place to ensure mail-in voters are who they say they are. District court: Yup, permanently enjoined. Fifth Circuit: Reversed. States enjoy wide discretion to combat voter fraud.
- Louisiana man is fired for refusing t
Article from Reason.com
The Reason Magazine website is a go-to destination for libertarians seeking cogent analysis, investigative reporting, and thought-provoking commentary. Championing the principles of individual freedom, limited government, and free markets, the site offers a diverse range of articles, videos, and podcasts that challenge conventional wisdom and advocate for libertarian solutions. Whether you’re interested in politics, culture, or technology, Reason provides a unique lens that prioritizes liberty and rational discourse. It’s an essential resource for those who value critical thinking and nuanced debate in the pursuit of a freer society.
