Civil Liberties
1,459 Articles
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…
Michael Ratner: The Leading Progressive Lawyer of a Generation
I just heard that Michael Ratner passed away from complications due to cancer. His New York Times obituary is here. My heart is broken. Michael was an extraordinary lawyer and…
Michael Ratner, RIP
My good friend and mentor, Michael Ratner, has died at age 72. A lawyer who worked with the Center for Constitutional Rights for more than 40 years, he was one of the great human…
Fourth Circuit To Hear Abu Ghraib Political Question Doctrine Appeal
Tomorrow morning, an (as-yet-unannounced) panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit will hear the (third!) appeal in Al Shimari v. CACI Premier Technology, Inc.,…
The Supreme Court’s Troubling Neglect of Courts-Martial
Later this year, the Supreme Court will decide whether to take up the case of Akbar v. United States — in which the Petitioner is seeking review of a capital court-martial…
Are US Courts Going Dark?
Now that the cell phones in San Bernardino and Brooklyn have been unlocked (no thanks to Apple), FBI warnings about “going dark” in the face of advancing digital encryption…
Feinstein-Burr: The Bill That Bans Your Browser
Last week, I criticized the confused rhetorical framework that the Feinstein-Burr encryption backdoor proposal tries to impose on the ongoing Crypto Wars 2.0 debate. In this…