Civil Liberties
1,369 Articles
Donald Trump and the Ghosts of Joseph McCarthy
Following the mass shooting at Pulse nightclub in Orlando, presumptive Republican presidential nominee and celebrity businessman Donald Trump repeatedly implied that President…
Seven Myths Busted: FBI Surveillance and the NSL Expansion Vote in the Senate
Yesterday, the Senate failed to pass a motion to end debate and move to a final vote on a highly controversial amendment related to Internet records, which New America’s Open…
Disappointing DOD Inspector General Report on Pre-Publication Review
Editor’s note: This post also appears on Lawfare. Earlier this year, we wrote about the US Government’s broken pre-publication review process (see here, here, here, here, and…
Brexit and National Security
This post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from the previous week or looks…
FBI Guidelines Weaken Separation of Community Outreach and Intelligence Gathering Efforts
Community outreach programs are a staple of modern law enforcement, designed to build trust, address local concerns, and communicate effectively with the public — at least in…
Beware of the Emergency Exception Loophole in the Email Privacy Act
The Email Privacy Act, which passed the House 419-0, is slated for consideration in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing this week. The legislation updates the now 30-year old…
A Return to Torture? Unlikely
One could be forgiven for thinking that all signs point towards torture making a comeback. Calls for the resumption of torture have been disturbingly prominent in this year’s…
With Remote Hacking, the Government’s Particularity Problem Isn’t Going Away
Electronic surveillance succeeds because it is secret. When the government seeks to record “what is whispered in the closet,” in the words of Justice Brandeis, it must use…
Important First Step by HPSCI on Pre-Publication Review Reform
Editor’s note: This post also appears on Lawfare. We are happy to learn, via Secrecy News, that the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) has weighed in constructively…
Will Justice Sotomayor Recuse in Turkmen?
As Marcia Coyle reported last week in The National Law Journal, and as I predicted back in December, the Solicitor General has filed a petition for certiorari in Ashcroft v.…
Can Detainees Plead Their Way Out of Guantánamo?
One of the more curious tidbits to emerge from the Senate Armed Services Committee’s draft of the FY2017 National Defense Authorization Act (which the Committee approved…
The 702 Reform Debate Is Just Heating Up
This post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections” feature, in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from the previous week or looks…