Did you know the feds can send a subpoena to social media companies to find out stuff about your accounts and also order the same companies not to tell you? Turns out it happens all the time. But the law says that a court has to make an individualized assessment of each request. Some federal agents convinced a district court to just let them do all the paperwork and give a blanket gag order for a bunch of requests. Betsy Sanz of IJ joins us to explain why the DC Circuit said that’s just not good enough, although they avoided the Fourth Amendment issue. Then IJ’s Andrew Ward takes us to a meth deal gone bad and a “crazy high” speed chase. When the police arrest the driver, though, he’s pretty friendly—and probably high on marijuana. And he’s even acquitted of dealing meth—but not of being a drug user who owns a rifle he’s barely used that’s back at home in his closet. Is that a Second Amendment violation? It turns on a lot of history and tradition that kind of doesn’t make a lot of sense.



Come to Short Circuit Live in Chicago on August 17!



Short Circuit in YIMBYTown! (11am on Sept. 15)



U.S. v. Perez



In re: Sealed Case



Short Circuit 325



Beyond the Brief episode “Cash Me if You Can”