Todd Butler's Problematic Publications He consistently attacks Justice Scalia, as advancing his "own political agenda." Reason · Oct 2
The East Wing and Justice Breyer's Concurrence in Van Orden v. Perry A court-ordered demolition of a White House national security facility, broadcast to the entire world, would be a Rubicon that should not be crossed. Reason · Aug 18
First Circuit Strikes Down Puerto Rico Ban on Certain Knowingly False Statements During Declared Emergencies Rodríguez-Cotto v. González-Colón, decided Tuesday by First Circuit Judges Gustavo Gelpí and Seth Aframe and Seventh Circuit Judge David Hamilton,… The post First Circuit Strikes Down Puerto Rico Ban on Certain Knowingly False Statements During Declared Emergencies appeared first on Reason.com. Reason · Aug 6
Helpful Judges A footnote from today's D.C. Circuit opinion by Judge Justin Walker in U.S. v. Littlejohn; the underlying issue was whether… The post Helpful Judges appeared first on Reason.com. Reason · Jul 17
Amicus Brief in Suncor Energy on the First Amendment and Climate Change Lawsuits The legal advocacy group Neutral Principles engaged Erik Jaffe and me to draft an amicus brief for them in Suncor… The post Amicus Brief in Suncor Energy on the First Amendment and Climate Change Lawsuits appeared first on Reason.com. Reason · May 28
The Substance of the Clean Power Plan Memos The Chief Justice reminds us why he was the best lawyer of his time. Reason · Apr 19
Judicial Misconduct or Impeachment Based On The Merits Of a Decision Could a Judicial Council take away all of a judge's cases based on the merits of a decision? Could Congress delegate this power of stealth impeachment? Reason · Jan 23
National and Local Traditions for the Second Amendment The Second Amendment does not have a geography clause. Reason · Jan 21
Newsom v. Trump Trial (re: Federal Use of California National Guard in L.A.) in Front of Judge Breyer Will Be Zoomivised Today's order: The bench trial scheduled for August 11-13, 2025 will be accessible to members of the public via Zoom… The post Newsom v. Trump Trial (re: Federal Use of California National Guard in L.A.) in Front of Judge Breyer Will Be Zoomivised appeared first on Reason.com. Reason · Jul 23, 2025
See, I Told You So About Justice Barrett Justice Barrett compares the Constitution to Odysseus. But I feel like Cassandra. Reason · Jun 16, 2025
Nearly Five Years Later, Justice Barrett's Memoir Has A Publication Date "Listening to the Law: Reflections on the Court and Constitution" Reason · Mar 21, 2025
Second Amendment Roundup: Supreme Court Considering Arms Ban Petitions on Friday Whatever happened to long guns good, handguns bad? Reason · Jan 8, 2025
Could President Trump Recess Appoint His Entire Cabinet Under Justice Scalia's Noel Canning Concurrence? Would a person serving under the Vacancies Reform Act, who resigns, create a vacancy for purposes of the Recess Appointments Clause? Would a presidential adjournment of Congress be an inter-session or an intra-session recess? Reason · Nov 13, 2024
VP Candidate Tim Walz on "There's No Guarantee to Free Speech on Misinformation or Hate Speech, and Especially Around Our Democracy" Robby Soave at Reason writes about this 2022 quote from Walz (MSNBC): https://youtu.be/y8ns76RCmWs [MARIA TERESA KUMAR, MNSBC HOST]: … I want to talk about what you just mentioned about misinformation, because, oftentimes before, in previous political chapters, disinformation, telling people were to vote the wrong way, that was kind of… Reason · Aug 8, 2024
Reason · Jul 3, 2024 The Way To A Circuit Court Nomination Is To Lose A Landmark Supreme Court Case President Biden nominated the non-prevailing attorneys in Dobbs and SFFA to the First and Fourth Circuits, respectively.
Reason · Jun 26, 2024 The Two Edges of Tradition: "Adverse Possession" and "Use It Or Lose It" If the government exercises a power it lacks for a long time, it can keep exercising that power. But if a government does not exercise a power it has, it loses that power.
Reason · Jun 16, 2024 Justice Barrett's Concurrence In Vidal v. Elster Is a Repudiation of Bruen's "Tradition" Test I expect Justice Barrett will exhibit her buyer’s remorse of Bruen in Rahimi.
Reason · Apr 4, 2024 Second Amendment Roundup: A Double Shot of Oral Arguments “Large-capacity” magazines and semiautomatic rifles are “bearable arms” in common use, no different from the handguns in Heller, but will two en banc courts agree?
Reason · Apr 1, 2024 Journal of Free Speech Law: "Distrust, Negative First Amendment Theory, and the Regulation of Lies," by Prof. Helen Norton The seventh of twelve articles from the Knight Institute’s Lies, Free Speech, and the Law symposium.
Reason · Mar 19, 2024 Justice Jackson Seems to Be Charting a More Speech-Restriction-Tolerant Approach Justice Jackson, like Justice Breyer (whom she replaced and for whom she clerked), seems to be considering an approach that is more embracing of speech restrictions that she views as especially urgent—including perhaps ones that departs from precedents such as the Pentagon Papers case.
Reason · Dec 17, 2023 Ten Reflections on Justices Kavanaugh and Barrett's Votes In Dobbs On Friday, I wrote a post that totaled nearly 6,000 words about the New York Times bombshell report on Dobbs. My initial goal was to simply lay out all of the new disclosures--and there were many of them. Now, I've had some time to think about this new information. Here,…
Reason · Dec 15, 2023 16 Disclosures from the New York Times Leak Report About Dobbs Jodi Kantor and Adam Liptak of the New York Times have published a remarkable story about Dobbs that reports on private correspondences, votes at conference, and more. This post will highlight sixteen of the largest disclosures, and close with some broader thoughts. And I've presented this narrative in (roughly) chronological…
Reason · Jul 17, 2023 Progressives Should Be Grateful For President Trump's Not-So-Conservative SCOTUS Picks Recently, Ron DeSantis, the Governor of Florida and GOP presidential candidate, offered a mild criticism of President Trump's three Supreme Court nominees. "I respect the three [Trump] appointees," DeSantis said, "but none of those three are at the same level of Justice Thomas and Justice Alito." DeSantis is not wrong.…
Reason · Jul 3, 2023 "What a Difference Five Years Makes" What would Masterpiece have looked like with Justice Kennedy still on Court?