What is Short Circuit?
Short Circuit is your concise (and sometimes irreverent) source for important and interesting cases and legal stories you might otherwise have missed.
Launched by the Institute for Justice (IJ) in 2015, Short Circuit started off as a short weekly newsletter rounding up the most interesting developments in the federal circuit courts of appeal as well as a weekly podcast digging into a couple recent particularly noteworthy cases.
Today, as part of IJ’s Center for Judicial Engagement, and with the newsletter and flagship podcast still going strong, Short Circuit also includes our legal history documentary podcast Bound By Oath, now in its fourth season, and our monthly roundtable podcast Unpublished Opinions. We also hold live shows (contact us if you’re interested in hosting one) and other events. Wherever and whoever you are there’s plenty of options to get engaged.
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Bound By Oath
Needless Friction. And Treason.
On this episode: the story of Pullman abstention, the first of several abstention doctrines the Supreme Court invented to let federal judges decline to decide […]
Listen NowShort Circuit
Short Circuit 432 | Moth-Eaten Precedent
A wild, and tragic, story from the Fifth Circuit with a bit of good (yet confusing) news at the end. IJ’s Diana Simpson tells us […]
Listen NowUnpublished Opinions
Unpublished Opinions 24 | What If It’s Not Peyote?
John Wrench is joined by Sam Gedge and Kirby West for a session of hot takes, hard questions, and changed minds. The trio challenge received […]
Listen NowRecent Newsletters
Righteous gaolers, crooked feds, and interlocutory appeals.
New case! Art Yatsko wants to build a modest home in North Port, Fla. for his retirement. And though his lot is in a neighborhood comprised entirely of single-family homes, the city recently rezoned the…



