Second Circuit
17 Articles

Court Says Warrant Needed for U.S. Person Queries of FISA Section 702 Data
Judge Hall’s Hasbajrami decision marks the first time a court has ruled that U.S. person queries of FISA Section 702 data must be performed pursuant to a warrant or an exception…

Expert Recap and Analysis of Halkbank Oral Argument at the Supreme Court
A breakdown of the key issues in a wide ranging oral argument on foreign sovereign immunity in criminal cases.

Suing Foreign States in U.S. Courts
Since the enactment of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) in 1976, foreign sovereigns have become subject to a number of statutory exceptions to immunity in U.S. courts.…

Second Circuit Gets Civil Forfeiture under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act Wrong
Are foreign states and their property immune from civil forfeiture suits brought by the U.S.? In a case involving a Manhattan skyscraper controlled by Iran, the Second Circuit…

Immigrants’ First Amendment Rights at Stake as the Second Circuit Hears Ragbir Case
Are federal immigration officers free to retaliate against immigrant activists who exercise their First Amendment rights? That is the question the Second Circuit will confront…

What Happened at the Court: The Hasbajrami Oral Argument on Section 702 of FISA and the Fourth Amendment
On August 27, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit heard argument in United States v. Hasbajrami, a case that raises several challenges to the constitutionality of…

Three Key Takeaways: The 2d Circuit Ruling in The Microsoft Warrant Case
As readers no doubt already know, the Second Circuit today issued a surprise ruling in the Microsoft Ireland warrant case — siding with Microsoft. The result: location of data…

A FOIA Circuit Split That the Supreme Court Needs To Resolve
On Friday, January 8, the Supreme Court will consider a petition for certiorari in EPIC v. DHS, a lawsuit by the Electronic Privacy and Information Center (EPIC) under the Freedom…

Second Circuit Denies Rehearing En Banc in Turkmen; Is Supreme Court Next?
I’ve written before both here and at MSNBC about the Second Circuit’s immensely significant June 17 decision in Turkmen v. Hasty, which recognized a cause of action…

Still Secret: Second Circuit Keeps More Drone Memos From the Public
Secret law has been anathema to our democracy since its Founding, but a federal appeals court just gave us more of it. Almost two centuries ago, James Madison wrote that “[a]…

Orin Kerr’s Unconvincing Defense of Yesterday’s Second Circuit (Non-)Ruling
Over at the Volokh Conspiracy, my friend Orin Kerr has a thoughtful post up about yesterday’s Second Circuit decision in ACLU v. Clapper, which refused to enjoin the…

Section 215 and “Fruitless” (?!?) Constitutional Adjudication
This morning, the Second Circuit issued a follow-on ruling to its May decision in ACLU v. Clapper (which had held that the NSA’s bulk telephone records program was unlawful…