The January 6, 2021, Capitol Riots: Resisting Calls for More Terrorism Laws

By Sudha Setty On January 6, 2021, a group overwhelmingly comprised of white supporters of President Trump engaged in extraordinary violence against people and property at the U.S. Capitol. In the weeks since those attacks, many terms have been deployed by politicians, the media, legal commentators, and legal academics to describe the events: riots, insurrection,… Continue reading The January 6, 2021, Capitol Riots: Resisting Calls for More Terrorism Laws

Will Brandenburg Provide Protection for Donald Trump in the Second Impeachment Trial?

By John Cary Sims Those preparing bar examination questions, and law school professors writing questions for their students in Constitutional Law or First Amendment Law, often create a fictional scene in which a speaker exhorts (or perhaps berates) a described group of listeners who are gathered in a certain place under stated circumstances. While sometimes… Continue reading Will Brandenburg Provide Protection for Donald Trump in the Second Impeachment Trial?

The Capitol Invasion and the Framing of Political Violence

By Shirin Sinnar In the wake of the invasion of the Capitol on January 6, 2021, the media, political leaders, and scholars sought the right term to capture the violence that had occurred: was this a protest, a riot, an insurrection, a seditious conspiracy, an autogolpe (“self-coup”), or domestic terrorism? Some of the debate over… Continue reading The Capitol Invasion and the Framing of Political Violence