Litigation
823 Articles
Square Peg, Round Hole – How the FISC has misapplied FISA to Allow for Bulk Metadata Collection
The recent treasure trove of NSA documents released by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence included an opinion by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court that…
The FISC’s Problematic Pen/Trap Opinion on Bulk Internet Metadata Collection
The latest round of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court opinions released under the Freedom of Information Act includes what, for many surveillance wonks, has been the white…
Dahlia Lithwick and Me on Why Metadata Matters
I suspect we’ll have a lot more to say about today’s oral argument in New York in the ACLU’s challenge to the government’s “telephony metadata”…
New FISC Pen Register Opinion: It’s Just a Matter of Time Before Somebody Gets Hurt
Once again, the NSA has conducted illegal spying. New documents reveal the National Security Agency’s (NSA) systemic violation of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC)…
Equating Terrorism and Bubonic Plague: Bad for Counterterrorism, Bad for the Constitution
If I were Al Qaeda’s director of propaganda and managed to infiltrate an agent into the American judiciary, I’d want him to exaggerate the terrorist threat and then leverage…
Supreme Court Denies EPIC Petition for Mandamus on the Telephony Metadata Program
Without comment or dissent. No surprise. As expected, then, the action turns to the several cases that have been filed in district court, two of which are being argued this…
Hearing in Another Surveillance Challenge Today
In previous posts I’ve discussed filings in the two most prominent challenges to the government’s “Telephony Records Program.” Things are moving along…
Avoidance of the First Amendment Questions in the Mehanna Case
In contrast with several other wartime eras in our Nation’s history, it is striking that the government’s counterterrorism efforts during the past twelve years have…
The Coming Hicks and Khadr Appeals: Yet Another Military Commission Headache
As various media outlets reported earlier this week, Australian David Hicks–one of the first detainees charged and convicted (via plea) under the Military Commissions Act…
My New Paper on Standing and Secret Surveillance
Our good friend (and separation-of-powers maven) Peter Shane from (the) Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law is hosting a “virtual” symposium on NSA…
The Basis for the NSA’s Call-Tracking Program Has Disappeared, If It Ever Existed [Updated]
There’s a significant discrepancy, one that deserves more attention, between what the NSA told the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court five years ago about the call-tracking…
Bond v. United States and a Plain Statement Rule
The old adage, “bad facts make bad law,” threatens to reassert itself in an especially damaging fashion in Bond v. United States, a case now before the Supreme Court in which…