Civil Liberties
1,361 Articles
The Role of Judges Under UK Surveillance Laws May be About to Change
For centuries, the authorization of surveillance powers under UK law has – for the most part – been in the hands of the executive rather than judges. All that may be about…
The Government’s Overstated Rehearing Petition in al Bahlul
I wasn’t originally planning to blog about the petition for rehearing en banc filed by the government on Monday in al Bahlul v. United States, challenging the three-judge…
The Reasons Why Dylann Roof Wasn’t Charged With Terrorism
Last week, Dylann Roof was charged with 33 criminal acts, including hate crimes and firearm violations, for his killing spree at a historic African American church in Charleston,…
Legislative Cyber Threats: CISA’s Not The Only One
If anyone in the United States Senate had any doubts that the proposed Cyber Information Sharing Act (CISA) was universally hated by a range of civil society groups, a literal…
Has the Human Rights Committee Extended its Reach?
Last week the UN Human Rights Committee, the independent body created by the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to monitor states’ compliance, issued…
UK Supreme Court Upholds Lawfulness of Questioning in Airports
In January 2011, Mrs. Sylvie Beghal and her three children were returning from a trip to Paris, where they had been visiting her husband, a French national in custody “in relation…
Skeptical of Guantánamo Diary? Question the US Government Instead
It is sort of a cardinal rule for writers not to respond to negative reviews, and I can easily imagine that Mohamedou Ould Slahi would let the new review of his Guantánamo Diary…
US Government Petitions for Rehearing En Banc (Again) in Al Bahlul
The petition is available here. This is not a terribly surprising development. But as I wrote after the panel decision, it’s also not likely to succeed, given the composition…
Are Cross-Border Shootings Heading to the Supreme Court?
Two weeks ago, I wrote about an important new decision by the US District Court for the District of Arizona, holding that the Fourth Amendment does apply to the cross-border shooting…
Cross-Border Shootings as a Test Case for the Extraterritorial Fourth Amendment
Ever since the Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in Boumediene v. Bush, courts and commentators alike have wondered about the relationship between the functional approach…
Bold Step on Privacy and Digital Rights
Political and diplomatic tussles over surveillance programs and digital hacking in the US, Germany, Brazil, China, and beyond show just how hard it is going to be to protect privacy…
It’s Time to End the “Debate” on Encryption Backdoors
Yesterday, on Lawfare, FBI Director James Comey laid out his concern that the growing adoption of strong encryption technologies will frustrate law enforcement’s ability to conduct…