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108 Articles

More on the Rights of Others – Ben Wittes’ Failure of Imagination
Ben Wittes weighs in today on Lawfare on the side of rejecting privacy rights for anyone but U.S. citizens, aligning himself with Orin Kerr and against myself [see my previous…

Making Sense of the NSA Metadata Collection Program (Part II)
In a previous post here on Just Security, I discussed the constitutionality of the National Security Agency (NSA) program that sweeps up detailed “metadata” pertaining to essentially…

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…

Newsweek’s Wayward Cover Story on Snowden and Chinese Cyber Hacking
Newsweek’s current cover story, “How Edward Snowden Escalated Cyber War with China” by Kurt Eichenwald, is an important read. Eichenwald makes two claims: Snowden’s impact:…

PCLOB Hearing on NSA Review
Today the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) is holding a public hearing on recommended changes to surveillance programs authorized under the USA PATRIOT Act and…

We Are All Foreign Nationals — Even Orin Kerr
The always thought-provoking Orin Kerr has responded, on Lawfare, to my plea here for respecting the privacy rights of foreign nationals. Kerr finds my arguments unpersuasive,…

Trick or Treat?: New FISA “Reform” Legislation Passes Senate Intelligence Committee
Earlier this week, Sen. Dianne Feinstein expressed outrage that “the Senate Intelligence Committee was not satisfactorily informed” of the NSA’s surveillance…

Live Feed of HPSCI Hearing on Potential Changes to FISA [Update: hearing now complete]
[Update (5:15 pm): The HPSCI Hearing on Potential Changes to FISA is now complete. Recorded video of the hearing testimony is provided below in two parts, due to the length of…

We Are All Foreigners: NSA Spying and the Rights of Others
The New York Times reports today that President Obama is expected to ban eavesdropping on the phones of our allies’ presidents and prime ministers. There is no indication,…

Latest Round of Briefing in ACLU v. Clapper “Telephony Records Program” Case
The ACLU and the Government filed their reply briefs today on their respective motions in the Section 215 “Telephony Records Program” litigation in the Southern District…

Laura Donohue’s Comprehensive Case Against Bulk Metadata Collection
Our good friend and Georgetown Law Professor Laura Donohue has been kind enough to share with us an advance draft of her latest article, “Bulk Metadata Collection: Statutory…

We All Go Down Together: NSA Programs Overseas Violate Americans’ Privacy, Yet Escape FISC, Congressional Oversight
Ongoing revelations show that significant NSA surveillance activities take place outside of either Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) or congressional oversight, even…