Vote early. But maybe don’t vote often? That’s the bottom line from Short Circuit’s biannual election special. With the 2026 General Election only days away, IJ’s Diana Simpson and your host bring you some of the latest cases from the federal courts of appeals on elections and political speech. There’s a polling place full of rulings on speech and paperwork burdens, what you can say about who can vote, the Founder’s fondness for anonymous pamphlets, the motor voter law, the Purcell principle, preliminary injunctions, prefilling voter applications, public records requests, and a real-life Twenty-Sixth Amendment case.

Minnesota Voters Alliance v. Ellison

AFP v. Meyer

AFP v. Albence

VoteAmerica v. Schwab

Grant v. Belangia

Red Wine & Blue v. LaRose

PILF v. Wolfe

PILF v. Simon

Short Circuit visited the Tenth Circuit Bench and Bar Conference in Colorado Springs. Between gin and tonics at the Broadmoor hotel we heard from a number of Tenth Circuit experts about some interesting circuit cases and what makes their court a Perfect Tenth. You’ll hear about qualified immunity, gun rights, prisoner conditions litigation, the continuing ramifications of the McGirt decision for the federal courts in Oklahoma, law students arguing on appeal, and what goes on at the Tenth Circuit Historical Society. Get your Rocky Mountain High, feel the wind come sweeping down the plain, and learn that in some matters you actually are in Kansas anymore.

Tenth Circuit Historical Society

McGirt v. Oklahoma

The OG Tenth Circuit

If you’ve ever seen the 1971 flick “The French Connection” you may know a bit about hiding illegal drugs inside the bodies of cars. Someone else had the same background knowledge and so had installed a secret compartment in his minivan. The problem for him was the police already had a warrant to search his home and while they were executing the warrant they took his van. After taking it away they got another warrant and found the drugs and then took the van through civil forfeiture. The defendant argued there was no warrant for the van’s initial seizure and that it therefore violated the Fourth Amendment. Unfortunately for him, the Second Circuit upheld what the police did because of the “automobile exception.” Robert Fellner of IJ tells us the story and discusses the weird world of civil forfeiture, cars, and searches, that should trouble us even when it crosses paths with the not most sympathetic of folks. After that, IJ’s Andrew Ward tells us of an Eleventh Circuit matter addressing the right to raise one’s child and substantive due process. The opinion allows us to have a fascinating discussion about general matters of constitutional law but please be warned (especially parents with children listening) that some sensitive subjects come up.

RSVP for Short Circuit Live in Cambridge, Mass. on October 19!

U.S. v. Acevedo

Henry v. Sheriff

Short Circuit 369

The French Connection