Short Circuit 428 | Shopping With Roy Moore
From Short Circuit by Institute for Justice
May 15, 2026 · 51 min
About this episode
The episode discusses Roy Moore's defamation suit and the implications of First Amendment protections, along with a Fifth Circuit denial regarding machine gun regulations.
You may remember Roy Moore’s 2017 campaign in Alabama for the U.S. Senate in which a controversy arose as to his behavior at the Gadsden Mall several decades before. And, further, that there were allegations that he was banned from the mall because of his friendliness with teenage girls. Include one who at one point was “Santa’s little helper.” After losing that race, Moore brought a defamation suit against the purveyors of a political ad that mentioned these mall/teenage girl allegations in a certain, perhaps misleading, order. And he won. Except, the Eleventh Circuit has now reviewed the matter and ruled that under the First Amendment’s protective standard for speech concerning public figures, Moore actually lost. Suranjan Sen of IJ details the wacky story and the mysteries of “actual malice” and defamation by implication. Then, IJ’s Prashanta Augustine details an en banc denial in the Fifth Circuit where the judges decided not to take up a challenge to the federal ban on machine guns. Even though the full court dodges the issue some judges indicate they think there would be meritorious Second Amendment challenges to the law in the future. And one even suggests there could be a…
People in this episode
Host: Institute for Justice
Guests: Suranjan Sen, Prashanta Augustine
Topics covered
- defamation
- First Amendment
- public figures
- Second Amendment
- machine guns
- legal challenges
Keywords
- Roy Moore
- defamation
- First Amendment
- Second Amendment
- machine guns
- Gadsden Mall
- political ad
- actual malice
- legal challenges
Mentioned in this episode
Places: Gadsden Mall
More episodes of Short Circuit
- Short Circuit 432 | Moth-Eaten Precedent · June 12, 2026 · 44 min
- Short Circuit 431 | Hard but not Impossible · June 5, 2026 · 52 min
- Short Circuit 430 | Stateless in Seattle · May 29, 2026 · 47 min
- Short Circuit 429 | A Fifth of Circuit · May 22, 2026 · 59 min
- Short Circuit 427 | Michigander Administrations · May 8, 2026 · 54 min
- Short Circuit 426 | Vaccinated Home Distilling · May 1, 2026 · 1h 5m
Explore listener stats, chart rankings, contacts and more on the Short Circuit podcast page.