Please enjoy the latest edition of Short Circuit, a weekly feature written by a bunch of people at the Institute for Justice.
This week, the DOJ announced that the DEA will cease its "cold consent encounters" at airports, during which agents demand to search people's bags while telling them things like, "I don't need your consent." The suspension coincides with an inspector general report condemning the practice. "We welcome DOJ's suspension of this program as a first step," says IJ Senior Attorney Dan Alban, "but policy directives can be changed at any time, under this or future administrations. We call on Congress to pass the FAIR Act to permanently reform federal civil forfeiture laws." In the meantime, IJ is currently suing the DEA and TSA over their airport seizure and forfeiture practices.
New on the Short Circuit podcast: Wisconsin appellate attorney Joseph Diedrich explains the ins-and-outs of the Rooker-Feldman doctrine amidst a most Seventh-Circuity Seventh Circuit en banc decision.