Civil Liberties
1,474 Articles
Wikimedia v. NSA: Standing and the Fight for Free Speech and Privacy
On March 10, 2015, represented by the ACLU, the Wikimedia Foundation and eight co-plaintiffs filed suit against the NSA, the Justice Department, and others, over the mass search…
Diplomatic Assurances, Torture, and Judicial Review:
The Bimenyimana Appeal
Later this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit will hear argument in one of the more quietly important torture cases to come before the federal courts in the…
Ninth Circuit Grants En Banc Rehearing in Posse Comitatus / Unlawful Surveillance Case
Back in September, I wrote about the Ninth Circuit’s fascinating decision in United States v. Dreyer, which applied the exclusionary rule to suppress evidence obtained…
The Right Way to Share Information and Improve Cybersecurity
This year is turning out to be a banner one for flawed proposals that would allow businesses to share information about Americans’ online activity with the Department of Homeland…
Reforming the FISA Court
There has been much discussion, on the pages of this blog and elsewhere (here, here, and here to name just a few), about the procedural shortcomings of the FISA Court — the lack…
Whither the Section 215 Reauthorization Debate?
Remember section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act — and the bulk telephone records metadata program the government conducted pursuant a controversial interpretation of that authority?…
Deep Dive: The White House’s New Memo on Drones and Privacy
Last month, President Obama released a presidential memorandum on the domestic use of drones by federal agencies. The memorandum addresses the implications for privacy, civil rights,…
Deradicalization, Free Speech, and Academic Freedom
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…
Wall Street Journal Grants Anonymity to al-Qaeda’s “First Easily Accessible Media Liaison”
The Wall Street Journal today quotes at length from al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula’s (AQAP) “first easily accessible media liaison” and explicitly grants the source…
Why Wikipedia is Suing the NSA
This week, the Wikimedia Foundation, sued the NSA over surveillance efforts taking place on US soil, specifically the “upstream” collection of Internet data in an effort to…
Post-Snowden Inquiry by UK Parliamentary Committee Recommends New Laws
Today, the Intelligence and Security Committee of the British Parliament published a report entitled “Privacy and Security: A modern and transparent legal framework.” The…
Travel Bans and Due Regard: The UK’s New Counter-Terrorism and Security Act
On Feb. 12, 2015, the Counter-Terrorism and Security Act 2015 (CTSA) received Royal Assent and many provisions are already in force. The full version is available here. The…