A month ago, I visited Washington, D.C. to see (unfortunately only a subset of) friends in the area, to get another Supreme Court bobblehead (Chief Justice Rehnquist) — and, naturally, to watch interesting Supreme Court oral arguments. I attended two arguments on March 23: the first for a First Amendment case, the second for (roughly) a police use-of-force case.

I did relatively little preparation for the police use-of-force case, limiting myself to the facts, questions presented, and cursory summaries of the parties’ arguments. My discussion of that case will be brief.

But the other case (for which I amply prepared) will receive different treatment. First Amendment law is extraordinarily complicated. A proper treatment of the case, its background, legal analysis, and oral argument discussion well exceeds a single post.

So a post series it is. Tomorrow: the police use-of-force case.

http://whereswalden.com/2015/04/20/another-d-c-trip/