Short Circuit: A Roundup of Recent Federal Court Decisions

Wanted posters, vague and threatening letters, and dragging a 75-pound dummy.

Please enjoy the latest edition of Short Circuit, a weekly feature written by a bunch of people at the Institute for Justice.

Last summer Alexandria, La. police pulled over Mario Rosales for failing to use his turn signal and detained him for 20 minutes, probing for evidence of other, more serious lawbreaking, cutting him loose when they didn’t find any. But wait! The officers’ dashcam shows that Mario did signal. Those sneaky dogs! Click here to learn more about IJ’s latest case, a challenge to pretextual, picayune harassment that passes for police work.

Over at Open to Debate formerly known as Intelligence Squared U.S., IJ Attorney Anya Bidwell debates the Heritage Foundation’s John Malcom on the merits of qualified immunity, explaining why it is really and truly okay if officers who make good-faith mistakes in life-and-death situations are not shielded from suit. With an appearance by The New York Times‘s Adam Liptak.