In 1966, Los Angeles officials tried to put a man in prison for handing out leaflets in protest of a fatal police shooting.
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officials → try → shooting
Today, we know the case as Younger v. Harris, which kicked off the doctrine of Younger abstention, the bane of many a civil rights plaintiff.
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which → know → plaintiff
On this episode, we examine the origins, the impact, and the relentless expansion of the doctrine.
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we → examine → doctrine
New on the Short Circuit podcast: You have a First Amendment right to record the police! And a Fourth Amendment right to not show ID!
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You → have → ID
But if you exercise those rights, it's OK if you're arrested.
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you → exercise → rights
- Infantryman Robert "Bowe" Bergdahl left his post in Afghanistan in June 2009 and was promptly captured by allies of the Taliban.
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Bergdahl → leave → Taliban
After five years of captivity and torture, he was released in a prisoner swap.
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he → release → swap
At court-martial, he pleaded guilty and was dishonorably discharged.
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he → plead → martial
Unknown to him, the judge presiding over his court-martial was seeking a job in the Trump DOJ and had submitted as his writing sample an order holding that then-candidate Trump's comments that Bergdahl was a "traitor" who "deserved the death penalty" did not constitute "unlawful command influence."
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who → preside → influence
Bergdahl files suit in federal court to vacate the conviction.
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Bergdahl → file → conviction
But we don't have jurisdiction over that sort of thing.
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we → have → thing
- Convinced that the president is the antichrist, man fires multiple rounds from an AK-47 at the White House.
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man → convince → House
No one is hurt; he pleads guilty to injuring a dwelling.
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he → hurt → dwelling
- Because we love you, we do research:
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we → love → research
This First Circuit opinion is, in fact, the first time a decision in the Federal Reporter has promised to "fill in the deets[.]"
- Puerto Rican "nonbinary persons" challenge the commonwealth's denial of their request to change their birth certificates from what they said when they were born to "X."
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they → promise → X.
We're going to assume rational basis applies.
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basis → go → ?
And with that, the asserted legitimate interest in protecting privacy sounds good enough.
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interest → assert → privacy
- Long Island, N.Y. public-school teachers are ordered by the school district to take down pride flags.
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teachers → order → flags
They sue, alleging violations of the First Amendment, among other things.
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They → sue → things
The displays covering the walls and doors of grade-school classrooms are something the gov't is allowed to control.
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gov't → cover → classrooms
We join the Sixth, Seventh, and Ninth Circuits in holding the rules for university professors don't apply here.
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rules → join → professors
- In which the Third Circuit holds that restrictions on out-of-state doctors' telemedicine practice are content-based restrictions on speech that would be subject to strict scrutiny … if not for the Founding-era history of gov't licensing of physician speech, which is hard cheese for the plaintiff physicians.
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which → hold → physicians
(Wondering if the court's historical analysis is correct?
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analysis → wonder → ?
Well, have we got just the article for you.)
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we → get → you
So no suppression for this hit-and-hold (a procedure by which police officers use warrants to track a box to a particular address, secure the box, and then search that address) that went awry when the recipient took the box to Apartment 1, rather than the Apartment 2 listed on the warrant, yet police searched Apartment 1 anyway.
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police → hit → Apartment
The cop made an isolated mistake—bad news for the defendant, who now must face the music of the discovery of five pounds of meth and a boatload of fentanyl.
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who → make → fentanyl
- Woman who has identified as a Jehovah's Witness, a follower of the Nation of Islam, and as a Christian, files a Title VII case against her employer after they fire her for not taking a COVID vaccine.
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they → identify → vaccine
Fourth Circuit (over a dissent): She was kind of hazy about how her refusal connected to religion, but we don't expect people to have degrees in theology.
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people → connect → theology
This is close enough to go to a jury.
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This → go → jury
- Sunset, La. police chief handcuffs unresisting, innocent bystander who does not match description of suspect and then twists the bystander's wrist until it's injured.
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it → handcuff → wrist
Now-former chief: That was unreasonable of me, but you know what else is unreasonable?
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what → know → me
Me paying this guy $3.5k in restitution.
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Me → pay → restitution
A coalition of internet companies sue, seeking a preliminary injunction.
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coalition → sue → injunction
The district court denies the injunction, holding that there's no showing of irreparable harm.
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court → deny → harm
The chilling of speech and the unrecoverable compliance costs the companies face are irreparable.
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companies → face → speech
How can they be irreparably harmed?
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they → harm → ?
Maybe the Tennessee AG will just decide not to enforce the law against them.
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AG → decide → them
- A once-prominent Cincinnati spine doctor is accused of fraudulently billing Medicare, Medicaid, and private insurance companies millions of dollars for hundreds of unnecessary surgeries that left patients worse off.
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that → accuse → patients
(He fled to Pakistan after the indictment and remains on the lam.)
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He → flee → lam
Civil litigation proceeded in his absence with his insurer defending and his appearing remotely for a few depositions.
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his → proceed → depositions
…and 22 more, not listed.
