Civil Liberties

2022 Update: Good Governance Paper No. 5: Prepublication Review – How to Fix a Broken System

At one-year mark of Biden administration, top experts revisit proposals to restore and promote nonpartisan principles of good government.

Jan. 26, 2022 Oona A. Hathaway and Jack Goldsmith

Cutting Edge Issues in Year 20 of the Guantánamo Habeas Litigation

After 20 years of Guantánamo litigation, legal questions around detention authority and due process still remain.

Jan. 11, 2022 Shayana Kadidal

People in orange jumpsuits and black hoods walk in a single-file line in front of US Capitol building

Defending the Rule of Law Requires Ending Guantanamo Detention

After 20 years, continued Guantanamo detention is unjustifiable.

Jan. 11, 2022 Daphne Eviatar

Stepan Putilo, founder of internet channel Nexta, speaks on a cell phone at the Belarusian House Foundation in Warsaw, Poland, on May 26, 2021. NEXTA, a Telegram channel with 2.1 million subscribers, provides news and information and shares photo and video content from demonstrations in Belarus. Putilo was a close associate of jailed journalist Roman Protasevich, an exiled Belarusian journalist arrested by the Belarus government when it diverted a European plane on May 23, 2021, and forced it to land in Minsk and removed him from the plane. (Photo by WOJTEK RADWANSKI/AFP via Getty Images)

Exiled Journalists Need Support, Not Autocrat-Fueled Skepticism

Western donors, civil society, and media partners need to update their views of those who've fled repression.

Dec. 15, 2021 Alexander Cooley and Tatyana Margolin

In this photo illustration, the logos of social media applications, WeChat, Twitter, MeWe, Telegram, Signal, Instagram, Facebook, Messenger and WhatsApp is displayed on the screen of an iPhone on October 06, 2021 in Paris, France. Frances Haugen, a former employee of the Facebook social network created by Mark Zuckerberg, told the US Senate on October 05 that Facebook was prioritizing its profits at the expense of security and the impact of the social network on young users. To support her claims, Frances Haugen draws on her two-year experience as a product manager at Facebook and on the thousands of documents she took with her last spring, grouped together under the name of "Facebook Files ".

We Now Know What Information the FBI Can Obtain from Encrypted Messaging Apps

Despite its “going dark” claims, the FBI can obtain a remarkable amount of user data from secure messaging apps that collectively have several billion global users.

Dec. 14, 2021 Riana Pfefferkorn

U.S. President Joe Biden speaks to representatives of more than 100 countries, as Secretary of State Antony Blinken looks on, during a virtual democracy summit at the White House in Washington DC on December 9, 2021. (Photo by NICHOLAS KAMM/AFP via Getty Images)

Biden’s `Initiative for Democratic Renewal’ — Analysis from Diplomats, Top Experts

The $424.4 million plan focuses on media, corruption, reformers, technology, and political processes like elections.

Dec. 10, 2021 Viola Gienger

Voting rights activists hold signs at protest

As It Convenes a Global Democracy Summit, the United States Must Commit To Defending Democracy at Home

Heading into the Summit for Democracy, the United States has yet to pass comprehensive voting rights legislation at home.

Dec. 3, 2021 Daniel Weiner and Lawrence Norden

Myanmar people gather for refreshment at a teashop in Yangon on August 31, 2018 many hangout to chat and browse Facebook with their mobile phones.

So, What Does Facebook Take Down? The Secret List of ‘Dangerous’ Individuals and Organizations

Facebook has been criticized for content it allows. But we should be equally skeptical of what it takes down, and its claimed legal reasoning for removals.

Nov. 1, 2021 Faiza Patel and Mary Pat Dwyer

Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs Bert Koenders hosts the large international consultations with representatives of the Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) and the Anti ISIS coalition in the fight against terror In The Hague, January 11, 2016. The representatives sit in a large room around tables arranged into a square. Large screens show projections of the minister speaking.

Watchlisting the World: Digital Security Infrastructures, Informal Law, and the “Global War on Terror”

The Global Counterterrorism Forum's new "toolkit" ignores input, tracks US practice to dangerously expand the unaccountable post-9/11 system.

Oct. 28, 2021 Ramzi Kassem, Rebecca Mignot-Mahdavi and 1 more

National Counterterrorism Center Director Matthew Olsen, FBI Director James Comey, Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, CIA Director John Brennan, Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn testify during a hearing before Senate (Select) Intelligence Committee January 29, 2014 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.

20 Years After the Patriot Act, America Must End Secret Law

Of the many abuses that sprung from the Patriot Act’s toxic soil, the most pernicious and enduring is the growth of secret laws. The insistence that the government must not only…

Oct. 26, 2021 Senator Ron Wyden

US President George W. Bush signs into law an anti-terrorism bill that expands police and surveillance powers in response to September 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, 26 October 2001 in the East Room of the White House in Washington, DC. With Bush from left to right are Rep. Mike Oxley, R-OH, Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-UT, Sen Pat Leahy, D-VT, Sen. Harry Reid, D-NV, and Rep. James Sensenbrenner, R-WI.

Rethinking Surveillance on the 20th Anniversary of the Patriot Act

20 years ago, Congress enacted the PATRIOT Act. It's time to move on from that outmoded model of surveillance.

Oct. 26, 2021 Sharon Bradford Franklin

A screenshot from C-SPAN showing headshots of the Supreme Court justices. The caption underneath reads, “State Secrets, Torture & CIA Black Sites; Oral Argument; United States v. Zubaydah”

Ruminations on the Abu Zubaydah Supreme Court Oral Argument: Three Surprising Turns

“The Supreme Court oral arguments in U.S. v. Husayn (Abu Zubaydah) took a number of surprising but welcome turns."

Oct. 18, 2021 Joseph Margulies