Law enforcement
484 Articles
The Microsoft Warrant Case: Response #2 to Orin Kerr
Over at the Volokh Conspiracy, Orin Kerr responds, point by point, to my disagreement with his take on the Microsoft warrant case. I thank Kerr for continuing the conversation,…
Armed Drones and the Influence of Big Business on Police Surveillance Technology
On Wednesday, the Daily Beast reported that the North Dakota state legislature recently passed a bill allowing law enforcement drones to carry less-than-lethal weapons. In theory,…
Warrantless Phone Tracking: The Fourth Amendment and Circuit Splits
Last week, a divided three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit ruled in United States v. Graham that the government must obtain a warrant to obtain from a phone user’s historical…
Jen Daskal’s The Un-Territoriality of Data is Honored
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of attending a luncheon honoring winners for best of the 2014-2015 Call for Papers by the Southeastern Association of Law Schools (SEALS) at its annual…
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…
The Government’s Wiretap Orders Still Don’t Add Up
Last week, I pointed out that the Administrative Office (AO) of the US Courts’ 2014 Wiretap Report numbers didn’t add up to the total number of wiretaps that AT&T, Verizon,…
The FBI’s Problem Isn’t “Going Dark.” Its Problem is Going Slowly
It should be clear to even casual observers today that the “golden age of surveillance” thesis is fundamentally correct. We live in a time when far more data and surveillance…
Describing Violence: The Charleston Shootings and the Label of Terrorism
Soon after the Charleston church shooting, FBI Director James Comey argued that Dylann Roof’s actions probably weren’t terrorism, eliciting criticism that law enforcement employs…
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…
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…