Short Circuit

On the heels of the trade deadline, Rob Johnson of IJ reports on some baseball news. But it doesn’t concern the latest in Major League Baseball. Instead, it’s about the business of baseball and how broad is the “business of baseball” exemption from the antitrust laws. There’s a baseball league in Puerto Rico that gave some pretty rough justice to an owner, who then took the league to court. Does the history and tradition of “baseball’s” exemption from antitrust laws apply to this league, or only to the American and National leagues back on the Mainland? Rob brings us the First Circuit’s answer and does so with the objective dispassion of a football fan. Then your host takes us out west for an unsolvable problem involving wild horses crisscrossing public and private lands in Wyoming. Are those horses actually “wild”? Doesn’t really matter to Congress, which mandates pretty impossible things that force the Tenth Circuit to send the government back through the administrative process. Then we close with some hot gossip: There’s no joy in Mudville. Come to Short Circuit Live in Chicago on August 17! [https://ij.org/event/short-circuit-live-at-the-seventh-circuit-judicial-conference/] Short Circuit in YIMBYTown! [https://yimby.town/schedule-2/] (11am on Sept. 15) Cangrejeros de Santurce Baseball Club v. Liga de Beisbol [https://www.ca1.uscourts.gov/sites/ca1/files/opnfiles/23-1589P-01A.pdf] American Wild Horse Campaign v. Raby [https://www.ca10.uscourts.gov/sites/ca10/files/opinions/010111265602.pdf] Flood v. Kuhn [https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/407/258/] Federal Baseball Club v. National League [https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/259/200/] Short Circuit 370 (on Wyoming crisscross property) [https://ij.org/podcasts/short-circuit/short-circuit-370-humans-only-in-the-copyright-office/] Casey at the Bat readings at Librovox.org [https://librivox.org/casey-at-the-bat-by-ernest-lawrence-thayer/]

Steve Lehto of Lehto’s Law rejoins Short Circuit—and for the first time on a YouTube episode—to spread the common sense he delivers daily on his own show. Steve shares a recent opinion from the Kansas Supreme Court about license plate covers. The police and lower courts had interpreted the law to make it a crime if a license plate cover blocked not just the actual license number but the name of the state. This basically turned a huge percentage of car owners into unknowing criminals. And gave the police a lot of discretion. But the court put a stop to that practice by saying it’s simply not how to read the statute. Further, Steve isn’t the only crossover guest on this episode. We also welcome Keith Neely of Beyond the Brief, another IJ podcast. Keith details an opinion from the Fourth Circuit upholding the federal ban on selling handguns to 18, 19, and 20 year olds. Is that OK under the Second Amendment? As with many constitutional issues these days, it depends on how you read the history. McCoy v. BATF [https://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/opinions/232085.P.pdf] Kansas v, Beck [https://searchdro.kscourts.gov/documents/pdf/caseDecisions/68a2dd43-a057-4305-ac91-a805486c06ef_126350%20.pdf] Bruen [https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-843_7j80.pdf] Blog post on New Jersey license plate case [https://ij.org/cje-post/state-con-law-case-of-the-week-no-legal-mistakes-in-new-jersey/] Lehto’s Law [https://www.youtube.com/@stevelehto/videos] Beyond the Brief [https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLCKlQEamqRJmWplquQXpFMCSZg5Xk1CZA] Mork Meets the Fonz and Lavern [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IRE5Y6IUvkY]

We look into the gray area between a multi-level-marketing venture, like Amway, and a “pyramid scheme.” Appellate attorney Kyle Singhal joins us to discuss a matter of his from the Sixth Circuit where the court examined whether prosecutors in a mail-fraud case got over their skis by repeatedly calling what the defendants did a pyramid scheme. “Pyramid schemes” are bad, obvs., but they’re not actually a federal crime. So was it OK to use that term when speaking to the jury? Kyle explains what the court said in affirming the convictions. Then, Marie Miller of IJ gives us an update on a case she discussed last year in the Eighth Circuit. A police officer arrested a Missouri man for walking on the wrong side of the road. The court had said his First Amendment retaliation case was no good because there was probable cause for the (uncommonly silly) crime. But then the Supreme Court said give that another try. And the Eighth Circuit did and now has ruled the other way, allowing the case to go forward. Marie explains how the court changed its mind (a change in judges might have helped too). Come to Short Circuit Live in Chicago on August 17! [https://ij.org/event/short-circuit-live-at-the-seventh-circuit-judicial-conference/] US v. Maike [https://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/25a0169p-06.pdf] Murphy v. Schmitt (2025) [https://ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/25/07/221726P.pdf] Murphy v. Schmitt (2023) [https://ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/23/09/221726U.pdf] Short Circuit 349 (episode on Murphy GVR) [https://ij.org/podcasts/short-circuit/short-circuit-349-wrong-side-of-the-road/]

Can the government force you to only exercise a constitutional right once a month? Could it do that with speech? Or practicing religion? How about keeping and bearing arms? IJ’s Will Aronin asks that question when discussing a California law that restricted gun purchases to buying one gun a month. The Ninth Circuit recently found the law violated the Second Amendment. That’s something the Ninth Circuit doesn’t do very often, so we made sure to take a close look at this “unicorn” of a case. Plus, frequent users of Sudafed may enjoy the conversation. Then John Wrench, the Assistant Director of IJ’s Center for Judicial Engagement, explains a recent Sixth Circuit decision about the government taking the blood of babies. The court addressed a couple constitutional challenges to Michigan’s practice of taking blood from babies when they are born, without parental consent, and then hanging onto the blood samples for 100 years. It said this did not violate the Fourth Amendment or the right of parents to direct the upbringing of their children. But this seemed to contradict what the same court—but different judges—had said earlier in the same case. Can they do that? Apparently.   Nguyen v. Bonta [https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2025/06/20/24-2036.pdf] Kanuszewski v. Michigan HHS [https://www.opn.ca6.uscourts.gov/opinions.pdf/25a0168p-06.pdf] Bruen [https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-843_7j80.pdf] Rahimi [https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/23pdf/22-915_8o6b.pdf]

Is speaking to a yoga class speech? The Ninth Circuit recently proclaimed that the answer to that question is actually “yes.” But before you turn away from this episode because it simply parrots Captain Obvious, please know that it was not so obvious to the district court. Or the city of San Diego, which tried to define the teaching of yoga—but not the teaching of anything else—in public parks as conduct, not speech. Teaching all kinds of other things was fine, but teaching yoga to four or more people could land you in a twisted position. Paul Avelar of IJ gives some erudition on how the Ninth Circuit relied on a case that he litigated a few years ago to bring the First Amendment to the yoga instructors of California. Then IJ’s Marco Vasquez drives us to Arkansas where some hemp producers challenged the state’s ban on most hemp products. The challengers make a lot of hay out of the allowance for “continuously” transporting hemp through the state. Along the way the Eighth Circuit has to deal with a scrivener’s error. And what is one of those again? Hubbard v. San Diego [https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2025/06/04/24-4613.pdf] Bio Gen v. Sanders [https://ecf.ca8.uscourts.gov/opndir/25/06/233237P.pdf] IJ’s Brief in Chiles v. Salaza [https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/24/24-539/363203/20250613155552684_24-539%20Amicus%20Brief.pdf]r [https://www.supremecourt.gov/DocketPDF/24/24-539/362843/20250611111928866_Chiles%20v.%20Salazar%20-%20Amicus%20Brief.pdf] Bartleby, The Scrivener [https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/11231/pg11231-images.html]