If you’ve been reading Ed Brayton’s blog, you know that one of the big problems with the current administration, like administration before it, is a penchant for using the so-called State Secret Privilege to avoid accountability for any questionable activities it might be engaging in. In fact, if anything, the current administration is even worse …
Category Archive: Liberty
Aug 14 2012
White House pulls plug on popular petition (or does it?)
The Electronic Privacy Information Center reports a disturbing but sadly unsurprising development in the struggle to recover our civil liberties. At approximately 11:30 am EDT, the White House removed a petition about the TSA airport screening procedures from the White House “We the People” website. About 22,500 of the 25,000 signatures necessary for a response …
Aug 08 2012
Well darn.
PZ Myers has a post up that has my feelings a bit mixed. It’s a quote attributed to Richard Dawkins: Yes, America STILL manages to reach Mars despite half the country preparing to elect a man who believes he’ll get a planet when he dies. It is all the more to the credit of the …
Aug 08 2012
4th Amendment protections officially moot
Wired magazine reports the depressing news that we now officially have fewer constitutional rights than we did under Bill Clinton. The federal government may spy on Americans’ communications without warrants and without fear of being sued, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday in a decision reversing the first and only case that successfully challenged President …
Jul 18 2012
Two sides to every story
This looked like an interesting First Amendment story: “Attorney for Pastor jailed in Arizona speaks out” (capitalization as in the original). Last week we brought you a story about Michael Salman, a Pastor in Arizona who surrendered himself to authorities to face two months in prison. His crime? Holding bible studies in his home. Mr. …
Jul 16 2012
New name, same old crap
OneNewsNow reports that the Alliance Defense Fund, whose defense of bigotry and discrimination has suffered serious setbacks in recent years, is hoping to win some new support by adopting a new name. And in the best conservative Christian tradition, they’ve decided to pick a name that completely misrepresents what it is that they actually do. …
Jul 09 2012
So will Christians quit using the Internet now?
This strikes me as mind-bogglingly welcome news: Google is stepping up its activism on gay rights issues in nations with anti-homosexuality laws on the books, a company official announced Saturday as he kicked off Google’s new “Legalize Love” campaign. The campaign will focus on countries like Singapore, where certain homosexual activities are illegal, and Poland, …
Jun 19 2012
NSA: It would violate your privacy to report how many privacy violations we’re committing.
The surveillance experts at the National Security Agency won’t tell two powerful United States Senators how many Americans have had their communications picked up by the agency as part of its sweeping new counterterrorism powers. The reason: it would violate your privacy to say so. via NSA: It Would Violate Your Privacy to Say if …
Jun 15 2012
PA Christians continue to flout the law
A lot of people have a fundamental misconception about the First Amendment, stemming from the phrase “church and state”—they think that as long as you don’t favor any particular individual church, you can establish religion as much as you want. Even if you’re a state legislator. At least two recent Pennsylvania House of Representatives sessions …
Jun 05 2012
“Liberty Institute” unclear on what “establishment” means
The Liberty Institute, a self-described “nonprofit legal group dedicated to defending and restoring religious liberty across America,” is asking a Texas district court to dismiss a lawsuit against the Wood County Commissioners Court for opening their public meetings with prayer, and for displaying the motto “In God We Trust.” “Higher courts have already determined that …
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