Category «Civil Liberties»

The Rage Unifying Boomers and Gen Z

The Atlantic – “Enormous differences separate today’s protest movements from those of the 1960s. But they may ultimately prove united by the magnitude of the change they impose… Today’s long wave of protest shares one other quality with its predecessor: It has changed popular culture and the contours of public opinion more quickly than it …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Economy, Financial System, Legal Research

How Social Media Has Changed Civil Rights Protests

The New York Times – Social media allows us “to see a reality that has been entirely visible to some people and invisible to others – “…Omar Wasow, a professor at Princeton University and co-founder of the pioneering social network BlackPlanet.com, said social media was helping publicize police brutality and galvanizing public support for protesters’ …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Internet, Knowledge Management, Social Media

Supreme Court Rules Title VII Bars Discrimination AgainstGay and Transgender Employees: Potential Implications

CRS report via LC – Supreme Court Rules Title VII Bars Discrimination Against Gay and Transgender Employees: Potential Implications, June 17 2020: “On June 15, 2020, the Supreme Court issued a decision in a series of cases brought by gay and transgender workers alleging that their employers violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Government Documents, Legal Research, Legislation

Police Officers Rarely Charged for Excessive Use of Force in Federal Court

“Despite growing popular unrest and media attention in recent years over excessive use of force by police officers, the latest available case-by-case data show that federal prosecutors rarely bring relevant criminal charges known as “deprivation of rights under the color of law” (18 U.S.C. 242) against law enforcement. In the first seven months of FY 2020, federal …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

FB Claims Pivot from 2016 Election Tactics to one of user choice

Along with tens of millions of others [probably more but…] I was completely inundated with unsolicited, deeply unwelcome, mostly disgusting campaign ads in 2016. This Facebook blog post has a lot of ground to travel in a very short time to achieve any kind of user credibility: “…Starting this summer, we will put the Voting …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Records, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Privacy, Social Media

‘Hey Siri, I’m getting pulled over’: iPhone feature will record police interaction, send location

Fox29 Philadelphia: “A feature exclusively available for Apple users called “Shortcuts,” which was launched in 2018, allows users to conduct tasks on their phones that would normally require multiple actions with a single voice command of the iPhone’s artificial intelligence capability, Siri.  The feature has been the subject of renewed focus recently as protests against …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Complaint: Trump Sues John Bolton Over His Memoir

Law.com – “…This is a civil action by the United States to prevent Defendant John R. Bolton, a former National Security Advisor, from compromising national security by publishing a book containing classified information,” the Justice Department said in its complaint Tuesday in Washington. The Trump administration on Tuesday went to court in Washington in an …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Congress, Defense, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Legal Research

Study – Americans don’t trust content decisions made by social media giants

CNET: “Most Americans don’t trust social media companies to police the content on their platforms, according to a poll published Tuesday from Gallup and the Knight Foundation. The poll found that 80% of Americans don’t trust big tech companies to make the right decisions about what content appears on their sites and what should be …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Legal Research, Legislation, Privacy, Social Media

Here Are the 96 U.S. Cities Where Protesters Were Tear-Gassed

The New York Times – The introduction to this article consists of still photos taken by a range of photographers at protests around the country. The photographs document the 96 U.S. cities where protesters were tear-gased by police: “…Tear gas has long been used to disperse crowds during protests and riots, both nationally and internationally, …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Government Documents, Health Care, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Social Media

The Economist Democracy Index 2019

“The twelfth edition of the Democracy Index finds that the average global score has fallen from 5.48 in 2018, to 5.44. This is the worst average global score since The Economist Intelligence Unit first produced the Democracy Index in 2006. Driven by sharp regressions in Latin America and Sub-Saharan Africa, four out of the five …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Economy, Education, Financial System, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

New Florida Community Coronavirus Dashboard posted independent of state control

Washington Post – “Tension built for days between Florida Department of Health supervisors and the department’s geographic information systems manager before officials showed her the door, she says, permanently pulling her off the coronavirus dashboard that she operated for weeks. Managers had wanted Rebekah Jones to make certain changes to the public-facing portal, she says. …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Government, E-Records, Government Documents, Health Care, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Medicine