Constitution
686 Articles
Law Enforcement Online: Innovative Doesn’t Mean Illegal
Even the Wild West needed a sheriff. And today’s law enforcement agents, to be effective, need more than a Colt .45 and a gold star. Criminal actors have an increasing ability…
Questions Congress Should Ask About Section 702
After passing a surveillance reform bill last year, Congress appears poised to turn to examine another controversial surveillance authority — Section 702 of FISA. Using Section…
Democracy in Peril in Poland
The collapse of communism in Central and Eastern Europe unleashed one of the most remarkable political transformations of modern times, paving the way for millions of Europeans…
The Way Forward for Surveillance Reform Can Balance Human Rights and Government Needs
The fall of 2015 was marked by two key developments in the debate about laws on communications surveillance and the right to privacy. First, on October 6, the EU Court of Justice…
Content Is Content, No Matter How Small
Recently, Orin Kerr and I had a brief conversation on Twitter regarding the Fourth Amendment and the content/non-content distinction. Specifically, Orin asked those of us who subscribe…
A Few Keystrokes Could Solve the Crime. Would You Press Enter?
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons Suppose a laptop were found at the apartment of one of the perpetrators of last year’s Paris attacks. It’s searched by the authorities pursuant…
Why should the Constitution require Article III courts for criminal trials of federal offenses?
[UPDATED for clarification.] Many thanks to Charlie Dunlap for his thoughtful response to my posts (here and here) about al-Bahlul and the Article III question in that case. Our…
Military Commissions and Fairness
My friend Marty Lederman provides a lot of fascinating commentary about the en banc rehearing in the Al-Bahlul case (here and here). I’d like to focus on just part of Marty’s…
The Government’s Surprising (and Flawed) New Attack on Habeas Corpus in Immigration Cases
These days, most discussions of the US Constitution’s Suspension Clause — and the entitlement to judicial review that it codifies — center upon non-citizen terrorism suspects…
We Don’t Need to Broaden Military Commissions’ Jurisdiction
Editor’s Note: This is the most recent post in a mini-symposium leading up to tomorrow’s en banc oral argument in the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit…
The President’s NDAA signing statement re: GTMO and anti-torture provisions
The President today signed into law into law S. 1356, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2016. The good news is that Section 1045 of the NDAA in effect codifies…
Remember Why We Have the Fourth Amendment
The Paris attacks have fueled a debate over surveillance on both sides of the Atlantic that, while not new, has reached a level of hysteria that I have not witnessed since the…