In recent weeks, numerous disaffected activists have protested Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk and the actions he has undertaken as the nominal head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Amid nationwide protests that organizers have dubbed the “Tesla Takedown,” some demonstrations have turned destructive: Activists have set fire to Tesla charging stations in Boston, […]
Elizabeth Oyer, a former public defender who was appointed as the Justice Department’s pardon attorney in April 2022, says she was fired last Friday because she refused to sign off on a recommendation to restore Mel Gibson’s gun rights. The movie star and director, who supported Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election and was […]
I have recently posted a new draft article, Data Scanning and the Fourth Amendment, to SSRN. The abstract: A crucial question of Fourth Amendment law has recently divided courts: When government agents conduct a digital scan through a massive database, how much of a “search” occurs? The issue pops up in contexts ranging from geofence […]
(Photo 181642336 © Zimmytws | Dreamstime.com) On Monday, US District Judge Amir Ali ruled against the Trump Administration in an important case involving control over the spending power. The court held the administration could not withhold payments from foreign aid contractors, that had been allocated by Congress. The issues in the case go far beyond […]
The Department of Justice (DOJ) submitted its revised proposed final judgment on Friday to Judge Amit P. Mehta of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in its antitrust case against Google, which now spans three presidential administrations. The DOJ and the attorneys general of 11 states brought the case against Google under […]
This week marks five years since March 13, 2020, the day President Donald Trump declared a national state of emergency over the novel coronavirus outbreak. By that date, only 57 Americans had died of COVID-19 and 1,645 had been diagnosed with the virus. Three days later, the White House issued the President’s Coronavirus Guidelines for America. Among […]
A Los Angeles homeowner has conceded defeat in his fight against the city to keep a tree house on his property. After seven years and more than $50,000 spent on legal fees and permits, the battle ended this weekend with a demolition crew. The tree house, which was built and owned by The Simpsons producer Rick […]
This week’s guest is Rachel Barkow, a professor of law at New York University and the author of the book Justice Abandoned: How the Supreme Court Ignored the Constitution and Enabled Mass Incarceration, which was just released this month. Barkow and Reason‘s Billy Binion talked about the importance of the presidential pardon power—which is a controversial […]
Department of Education cut in half:Â As of Tuesday, the Education Department is about half the size it was when President Donald Trump took office just a few weeks ago. Seemingly per the Department of Government Efficiency’s guidance, the Department of Education cut 1,315 workers. In addition to those firings, “572 employees accepted separation packages offered […]
The basic story of the holiday of Purim, which starts Thursday night, is this. The King of the Persian empire takes a Jewish bride, Esther, who conceals her Jewish identity. Meanwhile, the king’s evil vizier, Haman, plots a genocide of Jews throughout the empire, and wins the king’s blessing to undertake the massacre on the […]