Civil Liberties
1,361 Articles
No More Snowdens? Start by Reforming the House Intelligence Committee
Last Thursday, the House Intelligence Committee (HPSCI) issued a report condemning Edward Snowden and its members unanimously urged President Obama to decline public calls to grant…
In Turkey, Where the More Things Change . . .
The past couple of months have been tumultuous in Turkey. In short order, an ill-conceived military coup was followed by popular mass protest, the quick return of President Recep…
Unprecedented and Unlawful: The NSA’s “Upstream” Surveillance
The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 (FAA) — the statute the government uses to engage in warrantless surveillance of Americans’ international communications — is scheduled to…
Correcting the Record on Section 702: A Prerequisite for Meaningful Surveillance Reform
The legal authority behind the controversial PRISM and Upstream surveillance programs used by the NSA to collect large swaths of private communications from leading Internet companies…
Feinstein-Burr 2.0: The Crypto Backdoor Bill Lives On
When it was first released back in April, a “discussion draft” of the Compliance With Court Orders Act sponsored by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Richard Burr (R-NC)…
Supreme Court Grants Temporary Stay in Backpage Senate Subpoena Litigation
I recently wrote about the Senate civil enforcement action seeking to enforce a subpoena of Backpage.com records issued by the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI). Backpage…
The Vulnerability Equities Process Should Consider More than Intelligence Community Needs
Dave Aitel and Matt Tait’s recent post in Lawfare argued that the U.S. government’s procedure for deciding whether to withhold unknown or little-known vulnerabilities in…
To Privacy Rights Advocates: Embrace DOJ’s Cross-Border Data Proposal
In a lengthy post yesterday, Greg Nojeim and Ross Shulman take aim at the newly proposed legislation from DOJ that would permit the cross-border sharing of data for law enforcement…
Foreign Governments, Tech Companies, and Your Data: A Response to Jennifer Daskal and Andrew Woods
In a thoughtful August 1 piece in Just Security and Lawfare, law professors Andrew Woods and Jennifer Daskal urged Congress to embrace a legislative proposal by the US Justice…
Third Circuit Holds Suspension Clause Does Not Apply to Non-Citizens Physically (But Not Lawfully) Present in the United States
In a breathtaking 80-page opinion handed down today in Castro v. U.S. Dep’t of Homeland Security, a unanimous panel of the Third Circuit has held that the Suspension Clause…
A Problematic Pseudo-Category of Surveillance Information and Promising Post-Collection Policy
This week, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence declassified a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review (FISCR) opinion that has important broad implications…
Why Doesn’t the ABA Consider Discrimination Based on Military or Veteran Status to be an Ethics Violation? [Updated]
Earlier this month, the American Bar Association (ABA) crowed about a resolution (#109) that amended its Model Code of Professional Conduct to include as “professional misconduct”…