The Techdirt Legal Misunderstanding March Madness Final Four!

Vote On the Final Four Now!

And here we are. The inaugural Techdirt Legal March Madness is down to its Final Four! There are just four concepts left, and (to be honest) none are that surprising. The 1st Amendment faces off against RICO and Free Speech faces off against Section 230. I don’t think any are complete surprises, even if number one seeds HIPAA and Treason were defeated earlier in the tournament.

Either way you can check out the full current bracket here to see how we got here:

And while this set of competitors is completely understandable, the fact that so many people filled out brackets with very, very different results highlights what a tough competition this has been.

Still, the Elite 8 was actually a pretty easy affair with only one matchup really being even remotely close: RICO beating out Defamation 52.6% to 47.4%. The other matchups were more boring. The 1st Amendment easily defeated the Fairness Doctrine (as it should) 76.2% to 23.8%. Section 230 easily dominated Treason 79% to 21%. And Free Speech cruised to a straightforward win over States Rights 80.5% to 19.5%.

Anyway, now there are just four. Voting will run into tomorrow, and the championship matchup will take place on Monday… So who do you take? In a matchup designed to drive Ken “Popehat” White crazy, we have RICO vs. the 1st Amendment:

Techdirt Legal Misunderstanding March Madness Final Four. Which of the following is more misunderstood?

— techdirt (@techdirt) April 1, 2022

And, then on the flip side we have Free Speech facing off with Section 230:

Techdirt Legal Misunderstanding March Madness Final Four. Which of the following is more misunderstood?

— techdirt (@techdirt) April 1, 2022

Who will win? Will we have a final matchup of the 1st Amendment vs. Free Speech? What will that even mean? It might be fitting to have Section 230 face off against the 1st Amendment since many people mistakenly blame Section 230 for things the 1st Amendment enables. Or is the wild card going to be RICO, telling us that not all the biggest legal misunderstandings are about speech… Stay tuned to find out.