The Latest Breaking News from the Fifth Circuit

New Article: The General Law Right to Bear Arms

with implications for the pending Supreme Court case of United States v. Rahimi

Reason · Oct 31, 2023

Louisiana Mother of Autistic Child Hit by Teacher Files Supreme Court Petition

School officials in three states are effectively immune from lawsuits over excessive corporal punishment. A Louisiana mother is asking the Supreme Court to step in.

Reason · Oct 27, 2023

Court Agrees to Hear Missouri v. Biden Federal Government / Social Media Case

From today's order and accompanying opinion in Murthy v. Missouri: The application for stay … is granted. The preliminary injunction issued on July 4, 2023, by the United States District Court for the Western District of Louisiana … as modified by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth…

Reason · Oct 20, 2023

My amicus brief in today's Fifth Circuit horseracing case

The Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority has an Appointments Clause problem.

Reason · Oct 4, 2023

Supreme Court Will Consider Cases Challenging Florida and Texas Social Media Laws

The laws require major social media platforms to host content they disapprove of for substantive reasons.

Reason · Sep 29, 2023

Supreme Court Will Review Fifth Circuit Ruling that Creates a Catch-22 for Takings Claims Against State Governments

The badly flawed lower court ruling defies the Supreme Court's landmark 2019 decision forbidding such Catch-22 traps, and threatens the property rights of large numbers of people.

Reason · Sep 29, 2023

Trump is using guns to send a message

He paid visit to the firearm shop that sold a rifle to the Jacksonville shooter and claimed to have made a purchase

Salon · Sep 29, 2023

Fifth Circuit Panel Reconsidering Part of Its Missouri v. Biden Decision

[UPDATE: Don't blog when tired or in a hurry! I regret to say the original post erroneously said the Fifth Circuit granted rehearing en banc -- the panel just granted panel rehearing, and I've corrected the post accordingly. My apologies for the error.]

Reason · Sep 26, 2023

Free Speech, Social Media Firms, and the Fifth Circuit

The Fifth Circuit was right to rule it was illegal for the federal government to coerce social media firms, but wrong to uphold a Texas law requiring those firms to post material they prefer to keep out.

Reason · Sep 10, 2023

Federal Government Improperly "Coerced" and "Significantly Encouraged" Certain Speech Restrictions by Social Media Platforms

In yesterday's decision in Missouri v. Biden, the Fifth Circuit (Judges Edith Clement, Jennifer Elrod, and Don Willett) held that the federal government violated the First Amendment by causing social media platforms to block posts on various topics (including "the COVID-19 lab-leak theory, pandemic lockdowns, vaccine side-effects, election fraud, and…

Reason · Sep 9, 2023