Can Social Media Platforms Be Held Liable for User Speech?
Can social media companies be held legally responsible for the harms caused by their users? Richard Epstein examines the surge of lawsuits targeting social media platforms, particularly claims tied to speech, adolescent harm, and platform design. Epstein explains why traditional tort law places responsibility on the individual wrongdoer rather than intermediaries, how Section 230 is meant to shield platforms from derivative liability, and why efforts to carve out “bad faith” or promotion-based exceptions risk collapsing those protections altogether. He also explores the high costs and perverse incentives of jury-driven liability, the limits of causation in complex social harms, and a deeper concern often overlooked: government pressure on platforms that threatens free speech more than platform misconduct itself.
The Libertarian
The End of Hamas? Richard Epstein on Israel’s Path Forward
Richard Epstein discusses Donald Trump’s surprise ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas.
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Can the President Declare a Trade ‘Emergency’? On the Supreme Court’s Tariff Case
Richard Epstein delves into one of the most consequential Constitutional questions of our time: can the president unilaterally impose tariffs under emergency powers?
Constitutionalism
Amicus Brief: Hon. William P. Barr and Hon. Michael B. Mukasey in Support of Petitioners
Former AGs Barr and Mukasey Cite Civitas in a SCOTUS Brief
Rational Judicial Review: Constitutions as Power-sharing Agreements, Secession, and the Problem of Dred Scott
Judicial review and originalism serve as valuable commitment mechanisms to enforce future compliance with a political bargain.
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State Courts Can’t Run Foreign Policy
Suncor is also a golden opportunity for the justices to stop local officials from interfering with an industry critical to foreign and national-security policy.
Dishonor and the Civil Service
Those who serve in the government “should have, metaphorically speaking, their resignation letters in pocket in case they are ever confronted with a question of conscience.”
The Government Schools Persist in Mandating Gender Ideology
The volume and pace of federal litigation on these policies indicate there is no softening of the collective mind on transgenderism within the education industrial complex.
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