In April 2023, I wrote a column for the ABA Journal titled “The ABA needs ideological diversity to ensure its future.” I concluded: If the ABA does not arrest its progressive lurch, the organization risks its own obsolescence. Model Rules will not be adopted. Evaluations of judicial nominees will be ignored. The accreditation monopoly will […]
President Donald Trump’s exceedingly silly efforts to rename the Gulf of Mexico the “Gulf of America” became particularly obnoxious this week, as the White House announced that it would strip the Associated Press of access to presidential press briefings and Air Force One flights. The news organization’s transgression? Sticking with Gulf of Mexico in its […]
The Munich Security Conference in Germany this weekend was supposed to host the opening salvo of the Trump administration’s peace initiative for Ukraine. But Vice President J.D. Vance dedicated only a few words of his Munich speech on Friday to the war there: “The Trump administration is very concerned with European security and believes that we […]
Please enjoy the latest edition of Short Circuit, a weekly feature written by a bunch of people at the Institute for Justice. Of late, the Eleventh Circuit has been at the cutting-edge of excessive-fines litigation. And in a recent case—United States v. Schwarzbaum—the court got some important things right (e.g., that the Excessive Fines Clause does […]
This past week the acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) stopped operations and halted funding to the agency. Born out of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010, the CFPB is the government’s youngest agency. In its short life, it has been reckless with taxpayer dollars while enjoying […]
Can a local government prevent a business owner from painting a mural on their own property? That question is now before a New Hampshire federal court following a dispute over one bakery’s painting of baked goods above its store in Conway, New Hampshire. Leavitt’s Country Bakery is an acclaimed bakery in small-town New Hampshire—even getting […]
In its brief existence, the Elon Musk–helmed Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has proved remarkably effective at one thing: attracting lawsuits. Over the past several weeks, dozens of lawsuits have been filed challenging every aspect of the new initiative and its activities. A handful of these lawsuits argue that the very existence of DOGE is […]
From State v. Scatton, decided Jan. 30 by Judge Carl Taylor of the Connecticut Supreme Court, New Britain Jud. Dist. It seems pretty clearly wrong to me, but part of a broader trend in which states are reviving criminal libel through criminal harassment or cyberstalking laws (and without even a requirement that the prosecution show […]
Are you a law student, judicial law clerk, or lawyer hoping to publish your first, second, or third law review article related to free speech law? Would you like the opportunity to get advice about your draft from leading free speech scholars? If so, send us your draft by May 15, 2025. (This should still […]
Argentina’s government plans to revoke all permits for marijuana cultivation for medicinal use, Security Minister Patricia Bullrich announced in an interview on Thursday. “Some believe it does no harm, but it has become a very dangerous drug. THC—the substance that changes your neurology—in Argentina is 18%, while the one legalized in Uruguay is accepted up […]