Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery Since 2002

Daily Archives: March 29, 2015

What Went Wrong with the FISA Court

Brennan Center for Justice – What Went Wrong with the FISA Court by Elizabeth (Liza) Goitein, Faiza Patel, March 18, 2015.

“The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) Court is no longer serving its constitutional function of providing a check on the executive branch’s ability to obtain Americans’ private communications. Dramatic shifts in technology and law have changed the role of the FISA Court since its creation in 1978 — from reviewing government applications to collect communications in specific cases, to issuing blanket approvals of sweeping data collection programs affecting millions of Americans. Under today’s foreign intelligence surveillance system, the government’s ability to collect information about ordinary Americans’ lives has increased exponentially while judicial oversight has been reduced to near-nothingness. This report concludes that the role of today’s FISA Court no longer comports with constitutional requirements, including the strictures of Article III and the Fourth Amendment. The report lays out several steps Congress should take to help restore the FISA Court’s legitimacy.”

Foreward By James Robertson, former U.S. District Court Judge for the District of Columbia from 1994 to 2010: “The Brennan Center report makes an enormous contribution to our understanding of that mission creep. It explains clearly the history and development of FISA from its enactment following the Church Committee’s exposure of uncontrolled domestic spying by the FBI, through the Patriot Act amendments in the turbulent wake of the 9/11 attacks, to its present form. It explains, with a simplicity and clarity accessible to the layman but supported by a level of detail and citation of authority that will satisfy students of the subject, why in its present form FISA is disturbing to civil libertarians and to constitutional scholars. And it distills its argument into plain, powerful recommendations for FISA’s amendment. It is time, and past time, for Congress to give serious attention to the FISA problems that are so clearly documented here, and to act. The Brennan Center’s recommendations are not the only ones that have been put forth, but they are not doctrinaire, my-way-or-the-highway demands. They invite discussion, debate, and even (Heaven forfend) compromise. They need to be carefully considered.”

Federal Student Aid – Loan Servicing Information Report

“Per the contractual agreement with each of our federal loan servicers, the Department of Education (the Department) will annually measure servicer performance in the areas of customer satisfaction and default prevention. We will then use these results to determine each servicer’s allocation of future loan volume when applicable. This announcement is intended to share the… Continue Reading

Senate Select Committee on Ethics: A Brief History of Its Evolution and Jurisdiction

Senate Select Committee on Ethics: A Brief History of Its Evolution and Jurisdiction, Jacob R. Straus, Analyst on the Congress. January 13, 2015. “The United States Constitution provides each House of Congress with the sole authority to establish rules and punish and expel Members. From 1789 to 1964, the Senate dealt individually with cases of… Continue Reading

The Effect of Probability and Uncertainty Models on Hedge Fund Performance Analysis

Muteba Mwamba, John Weirstrastrass, The Effect of Probability and Uncertainty Models on Hedge Fund Performance Analysis (2014). The Journal of Applied Business Research, September/October 2014 Volume 30, Number 5. Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2586164 “This paper implements two types of framework to investigate the outperformance, selectivity and market timing skills in hedge funds: uncertainty… Continue Reading

CEO Cognition in Strategy Research

Chanda, Sasanka Sekhar, CEO Cognition in Strategy Research (March 27, 2015). Available for download at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2586215 “Cognitive considerations arising from the functions of the Chief Executive Officer appear to have been ignored in strategy research. Taking a cue from Freeman’s stakeholder theory, I discuss the constituencies addressed by the CEO in performing his/her job… Continue Reading

Ken Burns new PBS documentary on Cancer

Fortune: “Cancer is the fastest growing disease on Earth. It plagues nearly 1.7 million Americans each year, and over the next two years it’s expected that more people will die from the disease than were killed in combat in all the wars the U.S. has fought — combined. These facts set the stage for the… Continue Reading

A Look at Women Leadership in Congress

Disproportionate Representation By Cherise Charleswell, The Hampton Institute | News Analysis – truthout “Political representation is defined as the election of officials, who then stand in for, and speak for a group of their constituents in the legislature, for a set period of time. Unfortunately, moneyed interests, the threat of being “primaried” by the tea… Continue Reading

Cybersecurity and Information Sharing: Legal Challenges and Solutions

Cybersecurity and Information Sharing: Legal Challenges and Solutions, Andrew Nolan, Legislative Attorney. March 16, 2015. “Over the course of the last year, a host of cyberattacks has been perpetrated on a number of high profile American companies. The high profile cyberattacks of 2014 and early 2015 appear to be indicative of a broader trend: the… Continue Reading

US leads upward trend in arms exports, Asian and Gulf states arms imports up

“The United States has taken a firm lead as the major arms exporter globally, according to new data on international arms transfers published today by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Overall, the volume of international transfers of major conventional weapons grew by 16 per cent between 2005–2009 and 2010–14. The volume of US exports… Continue Reading