Jacob Sullum
The Archive
Man arrested for a COVID joke gives a much-needed lesson on free speech
Back in March 2020, Waylon Bailey's home was raided by police because of a Facebook post in which Bailey had made a zombie-themed joke about COVID-19.
Netflix's 'Painkiller' tells only half the OxyContin story
Netflix’s six-part miniseries "Painkiller" vividly portrays Purdue Pharma’s reckless marketing of OxyContin. But it dismisses the caveat.
Gorsuch rightly slams freedom-crushing 'rule by indefinite emergency edict'
Cornell law professor Michael Dorf urged Congress to impose a nationwide lockdown and suspend the writ of habeas corpus.
Malinformation: Censors' excuse to suppress 'inconvenient truths'
According to an alliance of social media platforms, government-funded organizations and federal officials that journalist Michael Shellenberger calls the "censorship-industrial complex," "malinformation."
Surprise: The CDC grossly exaggerated the evidence for mask mandates
A new review of the evidence suggests the CDC had it right the first time.
Turns out Russian election meddling's main impact was on the gullible journos who hyped it
A widely cited list of Twitter users who were described as “Russian bots” included “a bunch of legitimate right-leaning accounts,” according to an internal 2018 email from Yoel Roth.
California's perilous bid to censor your doctor's advice
The New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA), which Columbia legal scholar Philip Hamburger founded in 2017, cheekily describes itself as “a civil libertarian alternative to the ACLU
Biden's sneaky censors: How officials pressured social media to suppress disfavored speech
This exercise in censorship by proxy is especially troubling because it targets not only demonstrably false claims but also speech that the government considers "misleading" or contrary to the prevailing...
The ACLU's latest step to becoming just another progressive scold — at civil liberties' expense
Under Biden's new policy, borrowers earning up to $125,000 a year will be eligible for $10,000 in debt relief.
Chuck Schumer's over-taxed marijuana bill would only aid illegal dealers
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's bill calls for a federal excise tax starting at 10% and rising to 25% by the fifth year, which would be in addition to frequently...
Maximalists on both sides threaten a federalist compromise on abortion
Pro-choice states have responded with legislation that aims to frustrate such threats. Those interstate disputes pose complicated issues that will play out in the courts for years.
Fauci thinks arrogant technocrats should trump the rule of law
Anthony Fauci was “surprised and disappointed” by last week’s ruling against the mask mandate for travelers issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Left's attacks on Trump-appointed judge who struck down mask mandate ignore the law
US District Judge Mizelle backed up all three of her conclusions with discussion and cogent reasons. But instead of explaining why she was wrong, Stern complained about her age.
TSA's just-extended mask mandate has never made any sense
The TSA has extended the its mask mandate for air travelers for at least another month.
There’s no science behind the CDC’s insistence on universal masking in schools
The theoretical, unsubstantiated benefits of school mask mandates have to be weighed against the burdens they impose, which include interference with communication, learning and social interaction as well as daylong...
The Supreme Court and Biden's legally dubious vax mandate 'workaround'
The Biden administration sees its vaccine-or-testing rule for private employers as an easy loophole to jab all Americans – but the Supreme Court has the last say, Jacob Sullum writes.
One woman’s six-year ordeal shows we must reform civil forfeiture laws
After police in Berkshire County, Mass., took her car, Malinda Harris did not get a chance to contest the seizure for five and a half years.
Supreme Court abortion ruling aside, the 'viability' rule is arbitrary
For nearly half a century, the Supreme Court has said the Constitution prohibits states from banning abortion before “viability,” the point at which a fetus can survive outside the womb....
The last thing considered by Dems in the Rittenhouse case was the actual law
“I stand by what the jury has concluded,” President Joe Biden told reporters on Friday after Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges he faced for shooting three people, two fatally, during an August...
Courts debunk cash-hungry governments' harmful opioid myths
Since 2014, state and local governments have filed thousands of lawsuits against pharmaceutical companies they blame for causing the “opioid crisis.”