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
Elon Musk, Inequality, and the Politics of Envy
Richard Epstein takes on the growing obsession with billionaires, wealth taxes, and economic “justice,” arguing that making the rich poorer will not make the poor richer.
Roundup at The Supreme Court
Charles C. W. Cooke and Richard Epstein break down the Supreme Court’s 'Roundup v. Monsanto' decision, arguing that the case was widely miscast as a simple fight between big business and cancer victims.
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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The Fifth Circuit’s Chance to Expose the Inflation Reduction Act’s Unconstitutionality
Despite the mounting evidence of harm, the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program remains law — and the Justice Department continues to defend it in federal court.
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