“January 2014 data from the federal courts show that the number of tax lawsuits filed have declined nearly 10 percent in the past year, and are down over 30 percent from what they were five years ago. According to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC), a total of 68 new tax… Continue Reading
Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002
Category Archives: Courts
EPIC – New Limits on NSA Telephone Record Program Established, Authority Expires March 28
“The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court has granted the government’s motion to limit access by the NSA to the bulk telephone records provided by US telephone companies. Under the new rules, the government cannot “query” the telephone metadata until after the court finds that there is a “reasonable, articulable suspicion that the selection term is associated with” a… Continue Reading
2013 was a record-breaking year for exonerations in the United States
“The National Registry of Exonerations is a joint project of the University of Michigan Law School and the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law. We provide detailed information about every known exoneration in the United States since 1989—cases in which a person was wrongly convicted of a crime and later cleared of all the charges based on new… Continue Reading
Report – US: For-Profit Probation Tramples Rights of Poor
Human Rights Watch – “Every year, US courts sentence several hundred thousand misdemeanor offenders to probation overseen by private companies that charge their fees directly to the probationers. Often, the poorest people wind up paying the most in fees over time, in what amounts to a discriminatory penalty. And when they can’t pay, companies can… Continue Reading
IRS Criminal Prosecutions Rise 23% Under Obama
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse: “During the Obama administration, the number of criminal prosecutions referred each year by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has risen by nearly a quarter — 23.4 percent — over the Bush years. Prosecutions in fiscal year 2013 alone are up 30.6 percent from the previous year. Convictions are also drawing slightly longer average… Continue Reading
Sentencing Project Releases Report on Smaller Prisons and Sentencing Reform
“The Sentencing Project released two reports that highlight states downsizing prison systems and adopting sentencing policy reforms. Our research documents a three-year trend of prison closings that produced a reduction of 35,000 beds, including six states reducing capacity by 11,000 beds in 2013.” On the Chopping Block 2013 documents state prison closures and attributes the trend… Continue Reading
DOJ Agreement with tech companies permits limited sharing of FISA Court orders
Via TechFreedom President Berin Szoka: “Today, the Department of Justice announced that it has reached an agreement with Google and Microsoft to allow them and other tech companies to report, within broad ranges, the number of Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court orders they receive, and the number of user accounts surveilled. Google and Microsoft have agreed to drop their… Continue Reading
TRAC – Surprising Variability in Immigration Detainer Trends by Gender, Nationality
Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse: “Very recent government data reveal that while the number of detainers issued by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials has dropped by nearly a quarter (23 percent) since fiscal year 2012, there are striking differences in the trends when viewed by the gender and nationality of the individuals involved. Also, there are… Continue Reading
EPIC Files Appeal, Challenging Secrecy of Presidential Directives
“EPIC has filed a Statement of the Issue Presented with the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. EPIC is appealing a lower court decision that NSPD 54 — a Presidential Directive setting out the scope of the NSA’s authority over computer networks in the United States — is not subject to disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. EPIC sought… Continue Reading
New on LLRX – Clemency and The Vanishing Point of Decision Making
Via LLRX.com – Clemency and The Vanishing Point of Decision Making – Ken Strutin begins his article stating that for the most part, the decision of whether to grant a pardon or commutation rests on the discretion of the executive. He continues, it is a constitutional authority that leaves little recourse if the President or a governor chooses not… Continue Reading
Eugene Volokh – Bloggers = Media for First Amendment Libel Law Purposes
“So holds today’s Obsidian Finance Group v. Cox (9th Cir. Jan. 17, 2014) (in which [Eugene Volokh] represented the defendant). To be precise, the Ninth Circuit concludes that all who speak to the public, whether or not they are members of the institutional press, are equally protected by the First Amendment. To quote the court, The protections of the… Continue Reading
CDT – Court Strikes Blow to FCC’s Open Internet Rules
“Today, the DC Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the Federal Communication Commission’s Open Internet rules in its Verizon v. FCC ruling. The Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), which filed an amicus brief in the case on behalf of First Amendment scholars, issued the following statement in response to the ruling: “The court’s ruling is disappointing because it strikes… Continue Reading
