Archive for the 'Privacy'

Remember the battle over amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act a few years ago? Well those amendments are set to sunset at the end of the year so Congress has been trying to pass a bill to reauthorize them without any changes to the law. The House passed the package in September and the Senate started voting on it Thursday night. Read more

In an article that should surprise no one who has been paying attention, the Wall Street Journal reported last week that the Obama administration rewrote the rules on government surveillance to make them even worse than they were under the Bush administration. Read more

Much has already been written and said about the scandal that ended the career of David Petraeus. The infidelity is by far the least interesting aspect of the story. Far more interesting is how the story intersects with the 4th Amendment and the government’s ability to access our private communications. Glenn Greenwald is, predictably, all over that part of the story: Read more

The Supreme Court heard oral argument in two cases out of Florida involving drug-sniffing dogs last week and Radley Balko, the single best criminal justice reporter in the country, has an article at the Huffington Post about those cases, the precedents and how the outcome could further erode the 4th amendment. He points out something that may be far more important than it first appears: Read more

Rep. Steve King, the prom king of Wingnuttia High School, has again claimed that the Supreme Court’s decision in Griswold v Connecticut was wrongly decided, on the specious grounds that the court had created a new right out of thin air. He did this during an appearance at a high school in Iowa: Read more