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

Papers, please. IJ Senior Attorney Anya Bidwell comments on the lack of accountability for federal police over at The New Republic, in Radley Balko's piece about the Trump Administration's immigration enforcement blitz.

New on the Short Circuit podcast: Find out what it's like to litigate for people behind bars—including when they overcome qualified immunity.

1. For weeks, staff at a secure, state-run Norwich, N.Y. facility for people with severe disabilities ignore man's increasingly worrisome signs of heart disease, as well as his mother's pleas to take him to a hospital. Per an expert, his death felt like drowning. Facility: Ah, but he was admitted voluntarily, so we didn't have a constitutional duty of care to him. Second Circuit: Grant of qualified immunity reversed. To trial this must go.
2. Allegation: In 2020, college student reports that she was pulled over and sexually assaulted at night by someone in an unmarked vehicle with flashing blue lights. She leaves her phone at the Washington County, Va. sheriff's station while officers take her to the scene and soon thereafter receives threatening text messages telling her to recant or else. Officers review traffic footage of the wrong day and time and lie to her, saying they saw her car but not the assailants' in the video (in fact, they saw neither). They accuse her of sending the text messages to herself. Fearing that a legitimate cop is the assailant, she recants. She's charged with making a false report (and subjected to intense public vitriol). After her acquittal, she sues the officers. District court: She recanted, so. Fourth Circuit: Case undismissed.
3. Man suspected of illegal firearm possession takes off running when confronted by Gaithersburg, Md. officers. They shoot him in the back, killing him. Officers: He pointed a gun at us and we saw a muzzle flash, so good shoot. District court: To trial this must go. A reasonable jury might find the man didn't point the gun or fire it. Fourth Circuit (over a dissent): Affirmed.
4. So-called "Parker immunity" means that monopolies don't violate the Sherman Act so long as the state legislature has said the monopoly is a-okay. And if the legislature okays city-granted private monopolies, says the Fourth Circuit, that also means cities can just keep that monopoly for themselves.
5. Woman wants to sue Lexington, Miss. officers for, among other things, false arrest. But! After she got out of jail, she received paperwork asking her to appear in court, but the date is delayed and never rescheduled. Except! Turns out the arrest report says she was found guilty of obstruction and providing false info. Except! The court has no record of this. So does the "conviction" count under the Heck bar? District court: Parties, confer and figure out what's going on. Cops: Let's appeal. Fifth Circuit (unpublished): You can't appeal from that.

Boy howdy, this one stings. Just before Christmas, we received word that the Florida Supreme Court will not take up the case of the $165,000 in fines that Lantana officials want to wring out of IJ client Sandy Martinez for three trivial code violations: over $100,000 for parking cars slightly off of her driveway with two wheels in the grass; $47,000 for a storm-damaged fence (which she quickly rectified once her insurance claim went through); and $16,000 for cracks in the driveway. We'd argued that all of that falls afoul of the state constitution's prohibition on excessive fines, but no dice. Sandy is a hardworking, law-abiding sort, and the city is ruining her life for no good reason. Click here to learn more.