MediasTouch: “The first lawsuits against the incoming Trump Administration have already been filed by several non-profit groups which allege that the Department of Government Efficiency “DOGE” violates federal transparency laws. The lawsuits allege that DOGE fails to comply with various transparency and ethics requirements as prescribed by the Federal Advisory Committee Act. DOGE is not an official government agency, but will act as though it is an outside advisory committee that will support the Administration. In fact, the New York Times recently reported that Elon Musk, the leader of DOGE, will have office space inside of the White House complex. This lawsuit seeks to invalidate DOGE as a concept if it fails to comply with longstanding federal ethics laws. This lawsuit is also the first of what will likely be a bevy of lawsuits filed against the Trump Administration in the coming days and weeks as Trump signs additional executive actions.”
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Category Archives: Freedom of Information
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“Department of Veterans Affairs (the VA). It provides an index to basic biographical information on more than 18 million deceased American veterans who received some sort of veterans benefits in their lifetime, including health care, disability or life insurance policies, educational benefits (the GI Bill), mortgage assistance (VA loans), and more. The BIRLS database includes… Continue Reading
FOIA Fellows as Freedom Fighters
Jack Wroldsen, FOIA Fellows as Freedom Fighters: An Independent and Privately Funded FOIA Commission of Rotating Professionals (Oct. 31, 2024). 108 Marquette L. Rev. (forthcoming 2025), available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=5043146 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.5043146. “The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) is a hallmark of U.S. democracy, designed as an outsider element that foists transparency on a government… Continue Reading
Review of DOJ Process to Obtain Records of Members of Congress, Media
DOJ Oversight and Review Division 25-01. Redacted For Public Release. A Review of the Department of Justice’s Issuance of Compulsory Process to Obtain Records of Members of Congress, Congressional Staffers, and Members of the News Media: “In the spring and summer of 2017, CNN.com (CNN), The New York Times, and The Washington Post published articles… Continue Reading
American Autocracy Threat Tracker
State Democracy Defenders Action: “President-elect Donald Trump has said he will be a “dictator on day one.” Our American Autocracy Threat Tracker comprehensively catalogs all of Trump’s and his allies’ Project 2025 and other specific plans and promises. We also catalog potential bipartisan solutions to address the threat both now and should it come to… Continue Reading
Rebel Yell
Tablet – Part I: Donald Trump broke the back of the GOP establishment by driving blue-collar and lower-middle-class politics in a Southern direction. His gentry Republican critics have only themselves to blame. Donald Trump’s first and in many ways most enduring political accomplishment is not the humiliation of the Democratic Party he has toppled in… Continue Reading
Beyond Fairness in Computer Vision: A Holistic Approach to Mitigating Harms and Fostering Community-Rooted Computer Vision Research
Timnit Gebru and Remi Denton (2024), “Beyond Fairness in Computer Vision: A Holistic Approach to Mitigating Harms and Fostering Community-Rooted Computer Vision Research”, Foundations and Trends® in Computer Graphics and Vision: Vol. 16, No. 3, pp 215–321. DOI: 10.1561/0600000102. “The field of computer vision is now a multi-billion dollar enterprise, with its use in surveillance… Continue Reading
Courtroom Seating Pilot Program
The Supreme Court is implementing a pilot program in which members of the public may apply for Courtroom seating through a fully automated online lottery. Individuals who receive tickets through the lottery will be able to come to the Court knowing that they have reserved seating for a particular argument or non-argument session. The pilot… Continue Reading
The New Administration: A Boon for Investigative Journalism
Via LLRX – The New Administration: A Boon for Investigative Journalism – This commentary by Michael Ravnitzky highlights the critical period ahead for investigative journalism under the new presidential administration. Controversial stances and policy shifts will provide many more opportunities than usual for journalists to uncover and report on critical issues, ensuring that the administration’s… Continue Reading
Documenting the Assault on Disinformation and Hate Speech Research
“President-elect Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Rep. Jim Jordan, and other MAGA Republicans are engaged in an ongoing campaign to target researchers studying disinformation and hate speech. Philip Napoli–the James R. Shepley Professor of Public Policy, Director of the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy, and Senior Associate Dean for Faculty and Research for the… Continue Reading
How to survive the broligarchy: 20 lessons for the post-truth world
The Guardian – Carole Cadwalladr – In the wake of Trump’s unnerving appointees, the investigative journalist and veteran of the libel court offers [20] pointers on coping in an age of surveillance… Journalists are first, but everyone else is next. Trump has announced multibillion-dollar lawsuits against “the enemy camp”: newspapers and publishers. His proposed FBI… Continue Reading
Police seldom disclose use of facial recognition despite false arrests
Washington Post via MSN – Hundreds of Americans have been arrested after being connected to a crime by facial recognition software, a Washington Post investigation has found, but many never know it because police seldom disclose their use of the controversial technology. Police departments in 15 states provided The Post with rarely seen records documenting… Continue Reading
