Short Circuit

The Fifth Circuit is not boring. In just one week they served up enough qualified immunity cases to fill an entire episode, and then some. Nicolas Riley of Georgetown’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection joins us to discuss a case he litigated where the circuit failed to apply the Fourth Amendment to some rather un-Fourth Amendment friendly behavior by school officials. IJ’s Anya Bidwell then sends us in the other direction where the circuit denied qualified immunity to a pair of paramedics who refused to help a prisoner, and we discuss whether the Supreme Court’s recent tea leaves pushed it in that direction. Finally, we take apart an en banc denial where a majority of the circuit most definitely is not reading those tea leaves—although Judge Willet may be in the form of a telegraph message. Transcript: https://ij.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/short-circuit-180.pdf J.W. v. Paley, http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions/unpub/19/19-20429.0.pdf Kelson v. Clark, http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opini