CRS – Reform of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Courts: A Brief Overview. Jared P. Cole, Legislative Attorney; Andrew Nolan, Legislative Attorney. March 31, 2014. “Recent disclosures of various National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance and data collection programs have prompted increased attention on the government’s collection of foreign intelligence. Pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC)… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Courts
Supreme Court’s 5-4 Ruling on Campaign Finance
McCutcheon v FEC. Apppeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 12-536. Argued October 8, 2013 – Decided April 2, 2014. “The Government has a strong interest, no less critical to our democratic system, in combatting corruption and its appearance. We have, however, held that this interest must be limited to a… Continue Reading
EPIC- Judge Approves Controversial Settlement Over Objection of Consumer Privacy Organizations
“A federal judge in California has approved a settlement agreement in a lawsuit against Google that will allow the company to continue to sell data about users’ browsing history to advertisers. EPIC and several other consumer privacy organizations objected to the settlement, stating that it requires no change in Google’s business practices and provides no benefit to those… Continue Reading
Pew – Shrinking Majority of Americans Support Death Penalty
“According to a 2013 Pew Research Center survey, 55% of U.S. adults say they favor the death penalty for persons convicted of murder. A significant minority (37%) oppose the practice. While a majority of U.S. adults still support the death penalty, public opinion in favor of capital punishment has seen a modest decline since November 2011,… Continue Reading
Perma: Scoping and Addressing the Problem of Link and Reference Rot in Legal Citations
Harvard Law Review Essay by Jonathan Zittrain, Kendra Albert and Lawrence Lessig: “Works of scholarship have long cited primary sources or academic works to provide sources for facts, to incorporate previous scholarship, and to bolster arguments. The ideal citation connects an interested reader to what the author references, making it easy to track down, verify, and learn… Continue Reading
NACS v. Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System – Opinion
No. 13-5270 NACS, FORMERLY KNOWN AS NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF CONVENIENCE STORES, ET AL., APPELLEES v. BOARD OF GOVERNORS OF THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM, APPELLANT. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (No. 1:11-cv-02075). Decided March 21, 2014. “TATEL, Circuit Judge: Combining features of credit cards and checks, debit cards have become not… Continue Reading
EPIC – Deadline Approaches for End of NSA’s Telephone Record Collection Program
“March 28 marks the deadline set by President Obama to end the NSA’s bulk collection of American’s telephone records. Last week, Attorney General Eric Holder confirmed that the Justice Department is ready to meet the deadline that the President has set. After extensive meetings with leaders of the Intelligence Community, both the President’s Review Group and the Privacy and Civil Liberties… Continue Reading
Navigating the Pitfalls of Implicit Bias: A Cognitive Science Primer for Civil Litigators
Negowetti, Nicole, Navigating the Pitfalls of Implicit Bias: A Cognitive Science Primer for Civil Litigators (March 3, 2014). St. Mary’s L.J. Legal Malpractice & Ethics, Forthcoming; Valparaiso University Legal Studies Research Paper No. 14-3. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2403938 “Cognitive science has revealed that past experiences and prior assumptions, even those of which we are not… Continue Reading
Whole Life Sentences and the Tide of European Human Rights Jurisprudence
Note – this article is available free for a limited time: Whole Life Sentences and the Tide of European Human Rights Jurisprudence: What Is to Be Done? Dirk van Zyl Smit, Pete Weathery, Simon Creighton. Human Rights Law Review. Volume 14, Issue 1. Pp. 59-84. “In Vinter and Others v United Kingdom [Application Nos 66069/09, 3896/10 and 130/10, Merits, 9 July 2013 (‘Vinter [GC]’)] the Grand… Continue Reading
EPIC – Supreme Court Allows Warrantless Search of Home
“In a case that narrows the warrant requirement for searches of homes, the Supreme Court upheld the warrantless search of a suspect’s home by the LAPD after the person objected. In Fernandez v. California, the officers returned to the apartment of the resident after he had been arrested, and obtained consent from a roommate to conduct… Continue Reading
Canadian Court Decision on Copyright Trolls and P2P Lawsuit
Via Michael Geist: “The federal court has released its much anticipated decision in Voltage Pictures v. Does, a case involving demands that TekSavvy, a leading independent ISP, disclose the identities of roughly 2,000 subscribers alleged to have downloaded movies without authorization. The case attracted significant attention for several reasons: it is the first major “copyright troll”… Continue Reading
Joint Statement by Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and Attorney General Eric Holder on the Declassification of Additional Documents Section 501 of FISA
DNI News Release – February 12, 2014: ” On Jan. 3, 2014, the Director of National Intelligence declassified and disclosed publicly that the U.S. government had filed an application with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court seeking renewal of the authority to collect telephony metadata in bulk, and that, on Jan. 3, 2014, the court renewed that… Continue Reading
