Short Circuit: An inexhaustive weekly compendium of rulings from the federal courts of appeal

Please enjoy the latest edition of Short Circuit , a weekly feature written by a bunch of people at the Institute for Justice.

New cert petition : You might think it's outrageous that a Dallas detective lied to get a bar owner indicted for fake crimes at the behest of the detective's part-time employer, a neighboring business that wanted the bar gone. But what's really outrageous is that in the Fifth Circuit , the denial of the detective's plea for state-law immunity (from the bar owner's civil suit) is immediately appealable. As J. Oldham argues (in a troubled concurrence), the availability of such collateral-order review in federal appellate courts leaves federal jurisdiction at the mercy of states. Which makes no sense. Click here to learn more.

Over at the Brennan Center's State Cour