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SMART on CRIME – Reforming The Criminal Justice System for the 21st Century, August 2013 “At the direction of the Attorney General, in early 2013 the Justice Department launched a comprehensive review of the criminal justice system in order to identify reforms that would ensure federal laws are enforced more fairly and—in an era of reduced budgets—more …
“During the month of July 2013, ICE exercised prosecutorial discretion (PD) and agreed to close a total of 1,382 deportation cases that were pending before the Immigration Courts. This brings the total to 23,063 court closures over the past 19 months since the PD initiative began. The Seattle, San Diego, and Charlotte Immigration Courts had …
Russell Wheeler: “Among his non-judicial duties, the Chief Justice of the United States selects sitting federal judges to serve on the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court in addition to their regular judicial duties. A recent New York Times article reported that ten of the court’s 11 current judges, all selected by Chief Justice John G. Roberts, …
Cory Doctorow: “The European Parliament is currently involved in a wrangle over the new General Data Protection Regulation. At stake are the future rules for online privacy, data mining, big data, governmental spying (by proxy), to name a few. Hundreds of amendments and proposals are on the table, including some that speak of relaxing the …
WSJ – Obama Proposes Surveillance-Policy Overhaul – President Plans Changes to Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court Transcript of President Obama’s press conference on surveillance, August 9, 2013 Background on the President’s Statement on Reforms to NSA Programs, August 9 2013 Huffington Post – Obama Proposes FISA Reforms Amid Growing Concerns Over NSA Surveillance DOJ/Obama Administration White Paper on …
Spy agency has secret backdoor permission to search databases for individual Americans’ communications – “The National Security Agency has a secret backdoor into its vast databases under a legal authority enabling it to search for US citizens’email and phone calls without a warrant, according to a top-secret document passed to the Guardian by Edward Snowden. The previously …
“Central to the growing dispute about the legality and value of the very extensive electronic surveillance by the National Security Agency (NSA) is the secret federal court that approves the search warrants authorizing the NSA’s world-wide efforts. While the operations of both the NSA and the decisions of what is now incorrectly called the Federal …
“In the interest of increased transparency, the Director of National Intelligence has authorized the declassification and public release of the attached documents pertaining to the collection of telephone metadata pursuant to Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act. DNI Clapper has determined that the release of these documents is in the public interest.” Cover Letter and …
News release: “International negotiators meeting under the auspices of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) adopted [on June 27, 2013] a landmark new treaty that boosts access to books for the benefit of hundreds of millions of people who are blind, visually impaired and print-disabled. The treaty, approved after more than a week of intense …
Ron Nixon: “With little fanfare, the agency best known for airport screenings has vastly expanded its reach to sporting events, music festivals, rodeos, highway weigh stations and train terminals. Not everyone is happy. T.S.A. and local law enforcement officials say the teams are a critical component of the nation’s counterterrorism efforts, but some members of …
The New Yorker. TAKEN – Under civil forfeiture, Americans who haven’t been charged with wrongdoing can be stripped of their cash, cars, and even homes. Is that all we’re losing? by Sarah Stillman “In general, you needn’t be found guilty to have your assets claimed by law enforcement; in some states, suspicion on a par with “probable …
Statement by EC Vice President Neelie Kroes “on the consequences of living in an age of total information”: “If businesses or governments think they might be spied on, they will have less reason to trust the cloud, and it will be cloud providers who ultimately miss out. Why would you pay someone else to hold …
