WJI's daily read for Aug. 12, 2021

NJ: Smith & Wesson must give to New Jersey internal documents showing how the firm markets guns, judge says.

Courthouse News: Federal appeals court strikes down part of Iowa "ag-gag rule" but upholds another.

An Iowa law that makes it a crime to lie on an employment application to enter an agricultural production facility to expose animal abuse violates the First Amendment, the Eighth Circuit ruled Tuesday.

However, the St. Louis-based appeals court found a separate provision of the state law, which criminalizes the act of entering animal facilities under false pretenses, does not violate the U.S. Constitution.

CNN: Chief Justice John Roberts and the U.S. Supreme Court could block anything the Democrats try to do on voting rights.

Slate: Trump judges keep whining about cancel culture.

Brennan Center for Justice: Courts have been hiding behind national security for too long.

But the Supreme Court’s overall response to the 20-year “war on terror” reflects judicial abdication more than intervention. The result, in many cases, has been that victims of human rights violations receive no acknowledgment of harm, while security agencies remain unconstrained by legal precedent or the fear of judicial rebuke.
​
The core justifications for “national security deference” are unsound. Moreover, both the implications and origins of these ideas are racially fraught: the effects of national security deference fall largely on perceived racial and religious outsiders, while racial considerations shaped the very formation of the doctrines and help sustain them today. With the Supreme Court ideologically committed to national security deference, reform will require congressional action and broader public pressure.