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“United States v. Windsor challenges a key section of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) – The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) (Pub.L. 104199, 110 Stat. 2419, enacted September 21, 1996, 1 U.S.C. § 7 and 28 U.S.C. § 1738C)”
EFF: “Law professor and historian Tim Wu has called the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) the worst law in technology. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has described the governments interpretation of it expansive, broad, and sweeping. And Orin Kerr, former federal prosecutor and law professor, has detailed how the government could use it …
Information Sharing – Additional Actions Could Help Ensure That Efforts to Share Terrorism-Related Suspicious Activity Reports Are Effective [Reissued on March 26, 2013] GAO-13-233, Mar 13, 2013 International Religious Freedom Act – State Department and Commission Are Implementing Responsibilities but Need to Improve Interaction, GAO-13-196, Mar 26, 2013
“The Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues today issued its report concerning federally-sponsored research involving human volunteers, concluding that current rules and regulations provide adequate safeguards to mitigate risk. In its report, Moral Science: Protecting Participants in Human Subjects Research, the Commission also recommended 14 changes to current practices to better protect research …
“The latest available data from the federal courts show that during February 2013 the government reported 950 new lawsuits filed under the category of Employment Civil Rights, according to the case-by-case information analyzed by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC). This number is down 7.9 percent from the previous month and is 13.2 percent lower …
News release: “Over the last 13 years, governments, major multinational corporations, and non-governmental organizations have worked together in the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights Initiative, in an effort to make sure that when companies extract resources in some of the most difficult places on earth, they take tangible steps to minimize the risk …
CNN: “Drones both dazzled and worried senators at a hearing Wednesday about their use within the United States, and lawmakers and experts said that new legislation may be needed to protect the privacy and safety of citizens. Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, held and studied a small plane weighing just 2 pounds before beginning …
Democracy Index 2012 [requires free registration to download]: “In 2012 global democracy was at a standstill in the sense that there was neither significant progress nor regression in democracy in that year. Average regional scores in 2012 were very similar to scores in 2011. Free and fair elections and civil liberties are necessary conditions for …
CRS – Congress Human Rights in China and U.S. Policy: Issues for the 113th Congress, Thomas Lum, Specialist in Foreign Affairs. March 15, 2013 “This report examines human rights issues in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC), including ongoing rights abuses, legal reforms, and the development of civil society. Major events of the past year …
Follow up to previous postings on Aaron Swartz, news that Aaron is to be honored with freedom of information award by the American Library Association – “A champion of open access rights to documents on the Internet, the 26-year-old activist under prosecution committed suicide earlier this year.” See also Aaron Swartzs Lawyers Accuse Prosecutors of …
“Ten years after the US-led invasion ended the brutal rule of Saddam Hussein, Iraq remains enmeshed in a grim cycle of human rights abuses, including attacks on civilians, torture of detainees, unfair trials and widespread use of the death penalty, said Amnesty International in a new report today. Amnestys 82-page report – Iraq: A Decade …
News release: “After the Arab springs and other protest movements that prompted many rises and falls in last years index, the 2013 Reporters Without Borders World Press Freedom Index marks a return to a more usual configuration. The ranking of most countries is no longer attributable to dramatic political developments. This years index is a …
