Civil Liberties
1,361 Articles

Where Does the Trump Administration Stand on Encryption?
The circumstances are familiar: a deceased criminal, a locked phone, a determined FBI and a defiant tech company. After Devin Kelley murdered 26 people at the Sutherland Springs…

Extreme Vetting by Algorithm
Last week, a group of machine learning and data mining experts wrote to the acting secretary of DHS urging her to reconsider an automated Extreme Vetting Initiative being proposed…

Episode 46 of the National Security Law Podcast: The $15 Million Dollar Man
In this week’s episode, your devoted hosts dig into a bonanza of national security law odds-and-ends. First up is an en banc decision by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance…

How the Trump Administration Deals With Detainees Can Provide Insight Into its Counterterrorism Priorities
What is the US going to do with the “enemy combatants” it picks up during counterterrorism operations? How will we strike the difficult balance between protecting national…

The USA Liberty Act — aka Don’t Let the Constitutional be the Enemy of the Unconstitutional
The House Judiciary Committee has completed its markup of a major surveillance reform bill intended to better protect Americans’ privacy and enhance transparency. Responding…

Modernizing ECPA: We need Congressional action despite DOJ’s new gag order guidelines
On October 24, the Justice Department announced new binding guidance designed to limit the routine use of non-disclosure orders that are used to prevent tech companies from notifying…

Conservative Correctness: The Terrorism Double Standard
Hours after last week’s attack in Manhattan, President Donald Trump took to Twitter to say, “We must not allow ISIS to return, or enter, our country after defeating them…

Recap of Recent Pieces on Just Security (Oct. 28-Nov. 3)
Cybersecurity and Cyber Conflict Robert S. Taylor, Cyber, Sovereignty, and North Korea–And the Risk of Inaction Michelle Richardson and Mike Godwin, What the White House Needs…

For Quick and Strong Justice, Look to the Courts—Not Guantanamo
On Wednesday, Senators Lindsey Graham and John McCain reignited a seemingly settled debate by urging that Sayfullo Saipov, the suspect in Tuesday’s horrific terrorist attack…

Norms Watch: Democracy, the Trump Administration, and Reactions to It (October 2017)
Sign up here to receive Norms Watch in your inbox once a month. INTRODUCTORY NOTE This edition of Norms Watch will examine the ten greatest violations of democratic norms in the…

Episode 44 of the National Security Law Podcast: Interrogation, Prosecution, and Detention Issues in the Wake of the NYC Attack
We are back, one day after dropping episode 43, with an emergency podcast discussion the legal consequences of the horrific attack that occurred in New York City yesterday. The…

Terror in NYC: The Real Test Comes Tomorrow, Not Today
New York City officials are already calling Tuesday’s awful attack in downtown Manhattan “an act of terror.” Whether they are right remains to be seen; but, if so, the…