Law enforcement
438 Articles
Tightening the National Security Ratchet
A ratchet is a device that employs mechanical impediments to allow movement in only one direction. As such, it is a useful metaphor for national security policy, where restrictive…
Has the Gov’t Under-Charged an al-Qaeda Recruit?: The Ohio case of Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud
An important criminal charge is conspicuously absent in the Indictment of Abdirahman Sheik Mohamud, who is reportedly “the first American accused of returning from Syria with…
Microsoft Case: The Government Responds, But Fails to Convince
The government has now filed its Second Circuit brief in the dispute with Microsoft (discussed here, here, and here), challenging key assertions by Microsoft and its many amici,…
Case To Watch: Microsoft v. US on the Extraterritorial Reach of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act
On Monday, the government will be filing its brief in its case against Microsoft regarding the reach of the government’s warrant authority under the Electronic Communications…
You Should Care About Mutual Legal Assistance More Than You Do
About a year ago, I wrote here that the mutual legal assistance (MLA) regime – the legal system that regulates government-to-government requests for evidence in criminal investigations,…
It Will Take More Than Body Cameras to Restore Trust in Law Enforcement
Editors’ Note: The following post is the latest installment of our “Monday Reflections,” in which a different Just Security editor examines the big stories from the previous…
Security “Front Doors” vs. “Back Doors”: A Distinction Without a Difference
Thursday, FBI Director James Comey delivered a talk at the Brookings Institution, titled “Going Dark: Are Technology, Privacy, and Public Safety on a Collision Course?” His…
Justice Department Proposal Would Massively Expand FBI Extraterritorial Surveillance
A Department of Justice proposal to amend Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure would make it easier for domestic law enforcement to hack into computers of people…
NYPD Uses Discovery Tactics to Deter Civil Rights Claims
The discovery stage of national security litigation rarely attracts much interest, at least where it does not involve an invocation of “state secrets” by the federal government.…
Ferguson is not Fallujah
The shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, has sparked a long overdue discussion about the militarization of local police. The funds and equipment funneled to police…
Court Rules Against Microsoft: Questions of Data, Territoriality, and the Government’s Search Authority Headed to the 2nd Circuit
I blogged previously about the really interesting dispute between Microsoft and the government regarding the territorial reach of the warrant authority under ECPA. As you may recall,…
Magistrate’s Compliance: Searching Electronic Data Overseas
Amidst all the talk about the so-called Magistrates’ Revolt (referring to a group of magistrates pushing back against the government’s broad electronic search requests), it’s…