Civil Liberties
1,368 Articles
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…
Wiretap Numbers Don’t Add Up
Last week, the Administrative Office (AO) of the US Courts published the 2014 Wiretap Report, an annual report to Congress concerning intercepted wire, oral, or electronic communications…
10 Questions about the UK Spying on Amnesty International
Yesterday, the UK’s Investigatory Powers Tribunal informed Amnesty International that British intelligence agency GCHQ had spied on the human rights organization by intercepting…
Video and Highlights From a Conversation on Countering Violent Extremism
Just Security and the Project for the Study of the 21st Century (PS21) recently hosted an extremely interesting discussion between ex senior UN counter terrorism official Richard…
There’s No Reason to Hide the Amount of Secret Law
Last week, President Obama announced a new policy that would allow private parties to pay ransoms to hostage takers. The policy was established through an executive order and an…
Sloppy Cyber Threat Sharing Is Surveillance by Another Name
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…