Will the Supreme Court Let Sylvia Gonzalez Sue the Political Enemies Who Engineered Her Arrest?

“Gonzalez was so hurt by the experience and so embarrassed by the media coverage of her arrest,” the petition says, that “she gave up her council seat and swore off organizing petitions or criticizing her government.”

https://reason.com/2024/03/21/will-the-supreme-court-let-sylvia-gonzalez-sue-the-political-enemies-who-engineered-her-arrest/

Roommates Are Now Legal In Ohio

In a Jan. 30 decision, [Portage C]ounty court holds that the City of Kent’s restriction on the number of unrelated persons who may reside together to be unconstitutional.

With the series of decisions from 2006 to present, the Ohio courts are cementing an OH-PA-NJ property rights judicial axis based upon rights identified in state constitutions which, courts have held, go beyond those in the federal constitution.

Love And Liberty

The most fragile thing in the world is a social consensus in favor of freedom… The basic libertarian experience is to go to sleep confident that some freedom is rock-hard and universally-agreed upon, only to wake up the next morning and find that every newspaper in the country has simultaneously declared it Problematic.

https://www.astralcodexten.com/p/love-and-liberty

Canadian Court: Trudeau’s Use of Emergency Powers to Crush Protests Was Illegal

…police powers must respect the limits set by (in Canada) the Charter of Rights or (here) the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Emergency declarations that purport to bypass or remove those safeguards are an extraordinary peril to liberty.

https://www.cato.org/blog/canadian-court-trudeaus-use-emergency-powers-crush-protests-was-illegal

Oral Argument in Devillier v. Texas Suggests Victory for Property Rights Likely

In many cases, compensation is the only possible remedy for the violation of the property owner’s Takings Clause rights, as there is no way to address it by an injunction. For example, Justice Amy Coney Barrett noted that an injunction couldn’t fix a “temporary taking” where the government has temporarily taken an owner’s property, but then stopped. I would add the same is true of cases where the government has destroyed or damaged the owner’s property—as in Devillier itself. Short of inventing a time travel device and going back in time, Texas cannot undo the flooding of Devillier’s land. The only possible remedy for that violation of his rights is the payment of compensation.

https://reason.com/volokh/2024/01/16/oral-argument-in-devillier-v-texas-suggests-victory-for-property-rights-likely/

As Some Workers Try to Free Themselves from Unionization, Biden Officials Try to Dragoon More In

Whether a worker wants union representation ought to be an individual decision. The federal and state laws that turn it into a collective decision should never have been passed and after they were passed, should have been declared unconstitutional.

The Ongoing Legal Battle: Biometrics, 5th Amendment, and Phone Decryption

With modern smartphones, screen locks like passcodes or biometric locks, such as fingerprint or facial recognition, encrypt the data on the phone. This encryption means that the data from the phone’s hard drive is largely inaccessible without the screen being unlocked, making this issue all the more potent.

A Police Group’s Comments on Civil Asset Forfeiture Show Exactly Why It Needs Reform

A core principle of the American legal system is that you should be free to go about your business without having to show your papers.

https://reason.com/2023/12/29/a-police-groups-comments-on-civil-asset-forfeiture-show-exactly-why-it-needs-reform/

How FDR Emasculated the Black Press in World War II

Instead of indulging in politically risky sedition prosecutions of the black press, the government relied on indirect methods of behind-the-scenes manipulation and intimidation.

This country probably has as many of its citizens in concentration camps as has Germany… if the Government can do this to American citizens of Japanese ancestry, then it can do this to American citizens of ANY ancestry….Their fight is our fight.

George S. Schuyler, editor and columnist, Pittsburgh Courier

https://reason.com/2023/12/27/how-fdr-emasculated-the-black-press-in-world-war-ii/