The Volokh Conspiracy - Latest News and Information
A New York trial court ruled that the libel suit filed by three Columbia University students against the nonprofit Accuracy in Media (AIM) and its president can proceed. The plaintiffs allege that AIM created websites and mobile billboard trucks falsely branding them as "Columbia's Leading Antisemites" based on inaccurate claims about their leadership in student groups that signed a controversial letter. The court found the plaintiffs' allegations of actual malice sufficient to survive a motion to dismiss. The decision underscores the legal risks of using doxing tactics and unverified accusations in political activism.
The Ninth Circuit’s en banc panel continued its practice of issuing automatic administrative stays on immigration removal cases through the shadow docket, despite criticism from the Supreme Court’s recent emergency‑docket reversals. Judges describe the stays as "patently frivolous" and note that...
The Reason podcast episode "Free Speech Unmuted" examines whether the FCC will revive a broad interpretation of the Equal Time Rule, potentially reshaping political broadcasting. Host Vy Nguyen and legal scholar Stuart Benjamin discuss if broadcast television should retain its...
The Ninth Circuit vacated a summary‑judgment ruling in B.B. v. Capistrano Unified School District, holding that a first‑grader’s drawing containing the phrase “Black Lives Mater any life” is protected speech under the First Amendment. Applying the Tinker balancing test, the...
A federal judge in California ruled that Assembly Bill 2013, which requires generative AI developers to publish high‑level summaries of their training datasets, likely does not violate the First Amendment. The decision framed the disclosure requirement as a commercial‑speech regulation...
At a recent D.C. Circuit event, Justices Kavanaugh and Jackson debated the Supreme Court’s expanding emergency docket. Kavanaugh linked the surge to increased presidential reliance on executive orders, while Jackson claimed the Court’s emergency orders under Trump represented a shift...
A federal jury convicted Desiree Doreen Segari for transmitting a true threat under 18 U.S.C. §875(c) after she posted TikTok videos urging viewers to "see MAGA, shoot MAGA." The court rejected Segari’s argument that the statute requires a singular, specifically...
Federal Judge John Chun denied the Jacksons’ request to seal all personal identifying information and to proceed pseudonymously in the sex‑trafficking lawsuit filed by former fans. The court found the defendants had not shown good cause, noting that most alleged...
Judge Joshua Wolson of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania dismissed a pro se lawsuit that claimed a Second Amendment right to build solar‑powered greenhouses. The plaintiff, Mr. Nellom, argued that the right to bear arms includes a fundamental right to...
The Western District of Texas allowed a lawsuit to proceed against the University of Texas at Austin over its preemptive cancellation of a pro‑Palestine protest on April 24, 2024. Plaintiffs claim the university acted on viewpoint discrimination, arresting and disciplining...
A federal court in New York dismissed SUNY Fredonia's motion to dismiss a lawsuit by philosophy professor Stephen Kershnar, ruling his controversial podcast remarks on adult‑child sexual consent are presumptively protected by the First Amendment. The judge applied the Pickering...
The Second Circuit affirmed New York’s unauthorized practice of law (UPL) statutes, ruling they are content‑neutral and therefore subject only to intermediate scrutiny. The court held that the licensing requirement for anyone giving individualized legal advice is narrowly tailored to...
A federal prosecutor in North Carolina is accused of inserting fabricated quotations and misstatements of case law into multiple court filings in the Fivehouse v. Department of Defense litigation. The alleged fabrications involve citations to Fourth Circuit decisions and regulatory...
The California Court of Appeal upheld a family‑court order that relied on two nonexistent cases, *Marriage of Twigg* and *Marriage of Teegarden*. The order was drafted by the appellant’s counsel, who failed to verify the citations, while the opposing attorney...
In 2024 Louisiana enacted a statute requiring every public‑school classroom to display the Ten Commandments with a historical disclaimer. Parents sued, arguing the mandate violates the Establishment Clause under *Stone v. Graham*; a district court issued a preliminary injunction and...
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis appointed Judge Adam Tanenbaum to the state Supreme Court, marking his final reshaping of the bench. In Tanenbaum’s first oral argument, he asked the deputy solicitor general whether his statutory‑interpretation approach resembled Justice Gorsuch’s textualism in...
A federal judge in Jacksonville blocked Governor Ron DeSantis’s December 2025 executive order that labeled the Council on American‑Islamic Relations (CAIR) a terrorist organization and barred it from state contracts. The court held that the governor lacks authority to make...
Judge Lawrence VanDyke sat down with the University of Florida Federalist Society during the Originalism Conference to discuss his personal journey and judicial philosophy. He explained why his approach on the Ninth Circuit often diverges from his colleagues, emphasizing a...
A federal judge dismissed a group of Title VI discrimination lawsuits against Northwestern University alleging a hostile environment for Jewish students after the October 7 Hamas attacks. The court held that plaintiffs failed to show that university officials had actual knowledge of...
The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that New Jersey Transit is not an arm of the state, stripping it of sovereign immunity and overturning the Pennsylvania Supreme Court’s contrary ruling. The decision affirms the New York Court of Appeals’ view,...
In *Perez v. City of San Antonio*, a Fifth Circuit panel upheld San Antonio's plan to clear a river‑bend sacred to the Lipan‑Apache Native American Church, finding no substantial burden under the Texas Religious Freedom Restoration Act (TRFRA). Judge Andrew...
During the Supreme Court’s Hemani oral argument, Justice Kagan posed a hypothetical that a user of ayahuasca—a hallucinogenic tea protected under the 2006 *Gonzales v. O Centro* decision—could be barred from firearm ownership. The scenario pits a religious‑freedom exemption granted...
The Tenth Circuit ruled that the equal‑protection claim against a public school’s single‑sex fifth‑grade classes can proceed, applying intermediate scrutiny to the district’s sex‑segregation policy. The court found the plaintiffs’ allegations of reliance on outdated gender stereotypes and unequal disciplinary...
The Supreme Court’s per curiam decision in Mirabelli v. Bonta marks a pivotal moment for emergency‑docket jurisprudence, with Justices Barrett, Kavanaugh, and Roberts joining a majority that clarifies when swift relief is appropriate. Justice Barrett’s four‑page concurrence and the Court’s detailed opinion...
Newly‑elected Virginia Governor Abigail Spanberger declined to aid ICE in detaining undocumented immigrants, invoking the anti‑commandeering doctrine. The principle, rooted in Supreme Court decisions such as New York v. United States and Printz v. United States, bars the federal government...
A federal jury in Idaho awarded Professor Rebecca Scofield $10 million after finding former student Ashley Guillard liable for defamation. Guillard’s TikTok and YouTube videos falsely claimed Scofield had a same‑sex affair with a murder victim and that she orchestrated the...
The U.S. Supreme Court reinstated a district‑court injunction that bars California’s policy prohibiting schools from informing parents about a child’s gender‑transition activities unless the child consents. The Court granted parents’ request to lift the Ninth Circuit’s stay, while leaving the...
Columbia Law professor Thomas W. Merrill will deliver the Hallows Lecture at Marquette, examining three largely implicit legal ideas that have reshaped the constitutional balance. He argues these unstated doctrines have amplified presidential authority through orders and regulations and expanded...
The Ninth Circuit affirmed San Diego Mayor Gloria’s decision to veto correctional officer‑pastor Dennis Hodges’s reappointment to the Police Advisory Board, finding the mayor’s action permissible under the "commonality of political purpose" exception. The court held that volunteer board members may...
Harvard professor Jack Goldsmith argues that legal debates over President Trump’s recent strike on Iran are largely symbolic, as the Constitution provides only political, not judicial, constraints on presidential use of force. He notes that Office of Legal Counsel opinions...
Michael Ramsey’s upcoming Notre Dame Law Review article revisits the originalist debate over the Fourteenth Amendment’s Citizenship Clause, defending a broad interpretation that grants citizenship to virtually everyone born in the United States. The paper critiques narrower readings proposed by...
At Harvard Law School's Rappaport Forum, legal scholars debated the Supreme Court’s increasingly controversial “shadow docket.” Professor Kate Shaw and moderator Richard Re led a conversation about recent interim relief orders, emphasizing that it is too early to infer systematic...
The Washington Supreme Court ruled that a recall petition against City Councilmember Lucy Lauser was legally insufficient because her topless protest on International Transgender Day of Visibility was protected expressive conduct under the First Amendment. The court clarified that Washington’s...
The National Constitution Center released a "We the People" podcast analyzing the Supreme Court’s recent decision that declared President Trump’s tariffs unlawful under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. Hosted by Zach Shemtob of SCOTUSblog and NCC’s Julie Silverbrook, the...
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a district court injunction that had blocked Texas Senate Bill 12, a law restricting "sexually oriented performances" on public property and in the presence of minors. The appellate panel found the lower court...
In Wattenbarger v. City of Crossville, a Tennessee man displayed anti‑LGBTQ banners at a pride festival and was arrested after repeatedly parking his truck and horse trailer across multiple spaces in front of the courthouse. He sued the city for...
The State of the Union saw only four Supreme Court justices—Roberts, Kagan, Kavanaugh and Barrett—attend, while others stayed away by choice. President Trump used his speech to denounce a recent Supreme Court ruling on tariffs as “unfortunate” and “disappointing,” echoing...
A federal judge in Texas ruled that X (formerly Twitter) is not liable under the Non‑Consensual Intimate Image (NCII) statute for reposting a plaintiff's commercial pornographic material. The court emphasized that the NCII law expressly excludes commercial porn unless it...
The Northern District of California dismissed a plaintiff’s First Amendment claim after a park ranger ordered him to stop filming a private family barbecue in a public park. The court held that the First Amendment protects recording public officials performing...
The U.S. Supreme Court in Learning Resources v. Trump struck down President Trump’s expansive tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). The majority opinion, authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, held that the president cannot wield unlimited...
Law professor Kevin Volokh published the final version of his article "Data Scanning and the Fourth Amendment" in the Boston College Law Review, arguing that the scope of a Fourth Amendment search should be measured by filter settings rather than...
A petition for Supreme Court review challenges the Ninth Circuit’s ruling that Section 230 shields Twitter from civil penalties despite its knowing possession and distribution of child sexual abuse material (CSAM). The petition argues that the Good Samaritan immunity in 47 U.S.C. §230(c)...
McMinn County Circuit Court dismissed a lawsuit filed by District Attorney Stephen Hatchett that sought to block a vulgar political message painted on a Liberty Property Services building. The DA argued the phrase was obscene and violated Tennessee campaign‑finance rules,...
A federal district court in Iowa ruled that Newton’s Derogatory Comments Rule was unconstitutionally vague, overbroad, and viewpoint‑discriminatory, overturning the city’s arrests of commentator Tayvin Petersen. Petersen was acquitted of disorderly conduct after being handcuffed for calling the police chief...
The U.S. Supreme Court granted certiorari in Suncor Energy (U.S.A.) v. County Commissioners of Boulder County, the latest climate‑change tort suit filed by a local government against a fossil‑fuel producer. The Court not only adopted the petitioner’s question on whether...
A federal district court dismissed Marc Susselman’s lawsuit against the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission, holding that the case must proceed through the state disciplinary process. The court invoked Younger abstention and related precedents, finding Susselman failed to raise his constitutional...
Judge Gerald McHugh held that a remote nonprofit’s public online identity determines its citizenship for diversity jurisdiction, rejecting the defendant’s claim of a separate private identity. The case, Sherman v. American Ass'n of Suicidology, hinged on a change in the...
In this episode of Andrew Revkin's "Sustain What" podcast, host Andrew Revkin discusses the EPA's controversial final rule rescinding the greenhouse‑gas endangerment finding, which underpins Clean Air Act regulation of emissions. He is joined by environmental attorney Sean Donohue, a...
In this episode the host discusses his unconventional approach to Supreme Court opinions, focusing on a deep dive into the complex *Learning Resources* case, which produced seven separate opinions spanning over 170 pages. He explains how he edited the opinions—condensing...
In this episode, the host reviews President Donald Trump's reaction to the Supreme Court's ruling that the International Emergency Economic Powers Act does not permit tariff impositions. Trump lambasts the justices he deems disloyal, praises Justices Thomas, Alito, and Kavanaugh...
