April 13, 2023
Short Circuit 267 | Take It
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
Just compensation is a pretty basic part of the Constitution. Which is why this week’s panel is a little confused how the State of Minnesota […]
Listen NowApril 06, 2023
Short Circuit 266 | School Choice Special
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
On a special Short Circuit IJ’s Marie Miller sits down with a trio of school choice experts to provide an overview on where school choice […]
Listen NowMarch 30, 2023
Short Circuit 265 | Time Travel
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
Wouldn’t it be fun to own a time machine? If you said yes then you’re a lot like the Fifth Circuit. Last week its full […]
Listen NowMarch 23, 2023
Short Circuit 264 | Evicting Innocent People
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
Can a city get a renter evicted for a crime they didn’t commit? Unfortunately, in cities across the country the answer is yes. On a […]
Listen NowMarch 14, 2023
Short Circuit 263 | A Three Hour Tour
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
A nostalgic tale of judicial engagement where we examine whether recess is a crime and whether it’s fine for the government to follow your every […]
Listen NowMarch 08, 2023
Short Circuit 262 | Shielded
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
A special Short Circuit Live at Georgetown University hosts Joanna Schwartz of UCLA to discuss her book Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable. And not […]
Listen NowMarch 02, 2023
Short Circuit 261 | Live at Southern Methodist University!
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
Short Circuit speaks with the law students at SMU in our first visit to The Big D. With Anya Bidwell as your host, she introduces […]
Listen NowFebruary 23, 2023
Short Circuit 260 | Unlimited Tariff Power
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
For the first time Short Circuit welcomes the Jones-Act-hating, free-trade-loving, tariff-busting, T-shirt-writing, and top-5-ranking Scott Lincicome of the Cato Institute. Scott introduces us to a […]
Listen NowFebruary 16, 2023
Short Circuit 259 | The Rent Is Too Damn High
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
A qualified immunity and property rights pairing this week. But first we announce the winning answer from last episode’s “decretal language” competition. Then, Patrick Jaicomo […]
Listen NowFebruary 10, 2023
Short Circuit 258 | And in en banc news
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
Our newsletter begins announcements about federal en banc decisions with the phrase “And in en banc news.” And about a year ago we had an […]
Listen NowFebruary 02, 2023
Short Circuit 257 | General Google Warrants
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
On this Groundhog Day special we’re sniffing out a couple eternally recurrent subjects: limits on government surveillance and limits on property rights. We’re joined by […]
Listen NowJanuary 26, 2023
Short Circuit 256 | A Magical Bag of Dope
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
Could you identify a “bag of dope” through a tinted car window? A police officer in Euclid, Ohio thought he could, but it turns out […]
Listen NowJanuary 19, 2023
Short Circuit 255 | Basic Training
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
We are joined by Texas “teenylaw” lawyer Kristen Vander-Plas LaFreniere. We talk about what it’s like to run a very small practice and then dig […]
Listen NowJanuary 13, 2023
Short Circuit 254 | Civil Rights Roundup
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
In honor of the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr. we invited on three civil rights lawyers to talk about their latest, pathbreaking, cases and […]
Listen NowJanuary 05, 2023
Short Circuit 253 | Imaginary Lines
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
Two tales of the criminal justice system this week, with the Excessive Fines Clause and the Fourth Amendment both playing a part. First, in the […]
Listen NowDecember 29, 2022
Short Circuit 252 | 13th Amendment at SCOTUS
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
Not many lawyers alive today can say they’ve litigated a Thirteenth Amendment case (yes, that amendment; the one about slavery). But we at IJ have […]
Listen NowDecember 22, 2022
Short Circuit 251 | You Got Insurance?
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
You got insurance is not just a question they ask at the doctor’s office. Most of the time when someone sues the government—especially a local […]
Listen NowDecember 21, 2022
12 Days of Short Circuit Christmas
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
A very short episode for the Holidays. Sung by members of the Institute for Justice. Click to listen, but here are the words: On the […]
Listen NowDecember 16, 2022
Short Circuit 250 | Thanksgiving for the Arrest
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
One of our oldest friends (well, not really a “friend”) is back, the rational basis test. Turns out the government can justify refusing to give […]
Listen NowDecember 08, 2022
Short Circuit 249 | Licensed to Work
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
For millions of lower-income Americans, state licensing laws make finding work or opening a small business harder and more expensive—if not outright impossible. So claims […]
Listen NowDecember 02, 2022
Short Circuit 248 | “I Declare Bankruptcy”
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
Money makes the world go round. And sometimes the Constitution and our civil rights laws help money out with that. We examine a couple recent […]
Listen NowNovember 23, 2022
Short Circuit 247 | Off to the Races
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
Just in time for Thanksgiving we have two extremely juicy opinions (from a judicial engagement standpoint), one about the right to earn a living and […]
Listen NowNovember 18, 2022
Short Circuit 246 | The Unholy Trinity
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
We’re joined by two friends from the MacArthur Justice Center, Emily Washington and Eric Foley, to tell us all about a blood-boiling case of prosecutorial […]
Listen NowNovember 07, 2022
Short Circuit 245 | A Texas-Sized “And”
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
Everything’s big in Texas. Including that famous English conjunction “and.” For the first time on Short Circuit we have two IJ attorneys based in the […]
Listen NowNovember 02, 2022
Short Circuit 244 | Election Special 2022
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
When Americans vote it usually means one other thing. Americans suing. And this year is no different. Diana Simpson of IJ joins us, as she […]
Listen NowOctober 28, 2022
Short Circuit 243 | Live From New York It’s Short Circuit!
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
We recorded an episode live before an audience in New York City! NYC is home to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second […]
Listen NowOctober 20, 2022
Short Circuit 242 | CON Law at SCOTUS
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
The Institute for Justice has asked the Supreme Court to take a case challenging Kentucky’s Certificate of Need law (aka a “CON law”—very much a […]
Listen NowOctober 13, 2022
Short Circuit 241 | Pretext for a Traffic Stop
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
The Supreme Court has said that once the police find a reason to pull you over, they can pull you over—even if that’s not at […]
Listen NowOctober 07, 2022
Short Circuit 240 | Live at Columbia Law!
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
Enjoy some intra-Ivy League ribbing with two Yale grads talking law and clerkships from deep inside New York’s oldest university. Short Circuit welcomes David Lat […]
Listen NowSeptember 29, 2022
Short Circuit 239 | SCOTUS Preview Live from UNC
Podcast (short-circuit): Play in new window | Download
What’s new in OT22? Quite a bit, it turns out. This is our sixth annual Short Circuit Live Supreme Court Preview from the University of […]
Listen Now