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.
What’s so natural about rights? Well, a lot of our state constitutions actually call some rights “natural.” And state courts consider all kinds of rights of the “natural” variety, from life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness to the right to worship to the right to earn a living. In State Court Report, Anthony Sanders, the director of IJ’s Center for Judicial Engagement, summarizes the family of “natural,” “inherent,” “unalienable,” and “fundamental” rights—both “enumerated” and “unenumerated”—and what state courts are doing these days to protect them.
This week on the Short Circuit podcast: One gun a month is too few, even in the Ninth Circuit.
- At 2020 police-brutality protest, a 6’5″, 250-lb. Stamford, Conn. officer—without warning or command—hoists woman by her bra strap, pushes her backward in the air for about 15 feet, and then slams her to the pavement. The woman—who was not a protester; she was there at the request of a police supervisor to deescalate—suffers serious head and neck injuries. Second Circuit: And since it’s not clear from the video whether he was trying to get past her to aid other officers or just gratuitously thumping people, the grant of qualified immunity is vacated.
- Shortly before the 2016 election, self-described Twitter “shitlord” tweets and retweets memes urging supporters of Hillary Clinton to vote by text message. More than four years later—and two days after the inauguration of President Biden—he is criminally indicted for conspiring to injure citizens in the exercise of their right to vote. After four days of deliberation and two Allen charges to the jury, he’s convicted and sentenced to seven months in prison. Second Circuit: But there was no evidence he actually conspired with anyone, which is, y’know, an element of the crime.
- The federal Protection of Lawful Commerce in Arms Act preempts civil liability against gun manufacturers or sellers when gun users engage in illegal behavior. But not when the manufacturer or seller knowingly violates state or federal law. So how about a N.Y. law specifically enacted to go after the gun industry? Members of the industry challenge the law. Second Circuit: And they miss the mark because facial challenges are hard. Concurrence: But they have a good shot in an as-applied case. Governor Cuomo pretty much admitted this law is an end-run around the PLCAA when he signed it.
- How far down a 70-foot driveway does the home’s curtilage begin? Pittsburgh, Penn. officer followed a car into a driveway after smelling weed, searched the car, found an illegal gun. The driver argued that the officer entered the curtilage of his home without a warrant. Third Circuit: If you just look at these pictures, you’ll see that the officer was standing “several dozen feet” from the garage, outside the curtilage. Affirmed. Dissent: If you just look at these pictures, you’ll see that the officer was more than halfway up the driveway, past the stairs to the front porch, in an area enclosed on three sides, within the curtilage.
- “Twenty-four years ago, [Virginia] decided that Appellant was a guilty man. From that moment, the Commonwealth has done everything in its power to ensure Appellant dies in prison, eschewing the Constitution, ethical strictures, and Appellant’s own repeated and consistent assertions of factual innocence.” So says the Fourth Circuit in its fourth consideration of habeas for a man once sentenced to death for a murder-for-hire scheme in which the only evidence tying him to the crime was the shooter’s since-recanted testimony that the shooter said was coerced by the state via death-penalty threats.
- Allegation: After shooting at Dallas bar, investigators clear the bar owner and a security guard of wrongdoing. Yikes! A detective who isn’t assigned to the case—and who is secretly moonlighting for a neighboring property owner (who wants the bar gone)—gets the bar owner and guard brought up on bogus charges. (Prosecutors drop the case mid-trial when the conflict of interest comes to light.) Fifth Circuit: Despite any ulterior motives, the detective was doing detective stuff and thus acting within the scope of his employment. Which means, contrary to the district court, that he’s immune from civil liability under Texas state law. Concurrence: We should rethink whether interlocutory appeals of denials of state-law immunity should be available.
- Allegation: Harris County, Tex. deputy constables like to use the n-word, refer to a police vehicle as “slave transport,” and circulated pics and cartoons o
Article from Reason.com
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