Civil Liberties
1,361 Articles
It’s Time to Pass the USA Freedom Act—Warts and All
Thirteen years after 9/11, the United States Congress appeared poised to begin the long overdue process of reining-in the intelligence establishment’s runaway surveillance practices.…
Constitutional “Cross-Ruffing”: My New Article
About a year ago, I wrote about the Second Circuit’s decision in the Ghailani case, in which, among other things, the Court of Appeals rejected a former Guantánamo detainee’s…
The Need for Both Legal and Technical Privacy Protections
Last week, Apple and Google came under intense criticism from the law enforcement and national security communities for their decisions to encrypt user data when devices are locked.…
FBI is Hurting Apple and Google’s Competitiveness with Crypto Backdoor Demands
Last week, FBI Director James B. Comey dispatched his minions to yell at Apple and Google for architecting their smartphones such that government officials cannot decrypt information…
UK High Court Hears Case of Pakistani Held for a Decade Without Charges by UK and US
On Sept. 23, the United Kingdom High Court began its three-day hearing of a case involving the alleged kidnapping, torture, detention, and subsequent rendition of Pakistani citizen…
Australia Introduces Foreign Fighter Bill on Eve of Obama Chairing UNSC Meeting on Foreign Fighters
The Australian Government introduced a proposed law on Sept. 22 aimed at preventing Australian residents from traveling abroad to join terrorist organizations. Called the Counter-Terrorism…
Back to post-9/11 panic? Security Council resolution on foreign terrorist fighters
The United Nations Security Council is about to adopt a resolution on foreign terrorist fighters, scheduled for the afternoon of Wednesday, September 24 when President Barack Obama…
President Obama to Preside over Flawed UN Security Council Resolution on Foreign Fighters
On Wednesday, President Obama will take the unusual step of chairing a session of the U.N. Security Council, which will consider a U.S.-sponsored draft resolution on foreign fighters.…
No, You Can’t Strip Americans of their Citizenship, Senator Cruz: The Folly of the Expatriate Terrorists Act
Today, as the nation debates serious matters such as how best to address the ISIS and how best to reform NSA surveillance authorities, Senator Ted Cruz will reportedly seek unanimous…
Reading Jack Goldsmith’s STELLARWIND Memo (Part II)
Last week, I tried to read between the lines of Jack Goldsmith’s 2004 memorandum on the STELLARWIND surveillance program to explain why the bulk collection of Internet metadata…
ECHR: UK Did Not Violate Hassan’s Human Rights
The Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights today found that the British government did not violate the human rights of Iraqi Ba’ath Party member Tarek Hassan…
A Guantánamo Test Case for the “New” D.C. Circuit
Back in August, I wrote about the D.C. Circuit’s disappointing decision in Hatim v. Obama (the genital searches case), in which the Court of Appeals (1) held that the…