Civil Liberties
1,368 Articles
Does TSA Really Need a Watch List for “Unruly” Travelers?
There appears to be little justification for the new TSA watch list and lots of questions about how it might be used to harass and intimidate agency critics and even just rude…
What the Heck is Happening in Al-Nashiri?: The Ten-Layer Dip at the Heart of the Latest Guantánamo Mess
It’s hard to imagine a better microcosm of everything that’s gone wrong with the Guantánamo military commissions than the current headaches arising out of the prosecution…
The First Transfer of a Guantánamo Prisoner By the Trump Administration
On Wednesday, the Trump administration transferred longtime detainee Ahmed al-Darbi out of Guantánamo Bay. Although al-Darbi isn’t going free, this first transfer of a Guantanamo…
Travel Ban III: Why the Court Does Not Have to Second-Guess Any (Nonexistent) Presidential National Security Decisions
[Cross-posted at Balkinization.] There’s already been a great deal written about yesterday’s oral argument in Trump v. Hawaii. Most observers have focused on whether, for…
Ex-Military, Intelligence, and Foreign Policy Officials: Travel Ban Harms National Security
On April 25, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in Trump v. Hawaii, the case testing the statutory and constitutional validity of President Donald Trump’s travel…
Somewhat Improved, the CLOUD Act Still Poses a Threat to Privacy and Human Rights
Above: President Donald Trump gestures to the $1.3 trillion spending bill passed by Congress early Friday. The president just signed a 2,232 page omnibus bill to fund the government…
Congress Should Place More Limits on Cellphone Location Tracking After Carpenter
This spring, the United States Supreme Court will issue a ruling in the landmark case of Carpenter v. United States, deciding whether the government requires a warrant to continuously…
Why the CLOUD Act is Good for Privacy and Human Rights
Above: Lawyer Joshua Rosenkranz and Brad Smith, President and Chief Legal Officer of Microsoft, speak to reporters following oral arguments in the U.S. v. Microsoft case at the…
More Trouble for Undocumented Immigrants and the Suspension Clause
Back in August 2016, I wrote a lengthy post about the Third Circuit’s decision in Castro v. Department of Homeland Security, which held that recently-arrived undocumented…
The Empty Promise of “Waivers” from Trump’s Muslim Ban
Reports from U.S. embassies cast doubt on a central legal defense to the travel ban’s constitutionality: individualized waivers. Statistics show that only two out of 8,406 visa…
Microsoft Ireland: Extraterritoriality Step Zero
United States v. Microsoft is a fascinating case because it appears at the cross-roads of so many different areas of the law—the Fourth Amendment, criminal law, data privacy,…
The Parties in U.S. v. Microsoft Are Misinterpreting the Stored Communications Act’s Warrant Authority
United States v. Microsoft comes to the court in stark terms. The case involves a search warrant demanding that Microsoft turn over stored emails from a server in Ireland. That…