Litigation
826 Articles
Judge Leon Enjoins Bulk Metadata Program; Stays Ruling Pending Appeal
Things just got interesting here in D.C. In a ruling issued earlier today, Judge Richard Leon has held that Larry Klayman and Charles Strange have standing to challenge the bulk…
Can §215 Be Used for Content Collection?
At this week’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the National Security Agency’s surveillance authorities, Sen. Patrick Leahy posed a crucial question to the government’s…
Transcript of Oral Argument in ACLU v. Clapper
We’ve finally got a transcript from the Nov. 22 hearing in ACLU v. Clapper, the ACLU’s challenge to the NSA’s mass call-tracking program. The transcript is here. Particularly…
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…