Category «Civil Liberties»

New Articles and Columns – LLRX February 2025 Issue

Climate and DEI Deleted From Government Websites, Federal Workers Fired, Colleges Erase Programs and Research – “Colleges have been a conservative target for years. Under President Trump, it’s total warfare on all aspects of higher education — from student life to hiring to athletics.” This March 2, 2025 update by Sabrina I. Pacifici chronicles Trump’s …

Subjects: AI, Censorship, Civil Liberties, Climate Change, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, E-Government, Economy, Education, Environmental Law, Financial System, Freedom of Information, Government Documents, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

Timeline: Politicization and Weaponization of Justice Department in Second Trump Administration

Just Security: “What follows is a timeline of actions that highlight the alarming level of politicization and weaponization of the Department of Justice under the second Trump administration. Politicization includes the misuse of the Department’s powers for political purposes rather than the independent and impartial enforcement of the laws. Weaponization includes a deliberate and systematic …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Congress, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Legal Research

A New Open Source Tool from EFF to Detect Cellular Spying

EFF: “At EFF we spend a lot of time thinking about Street Level Surveillance technologies—the technologies used by police and other authorities to spy on you while you are going about your everyday life—such as automated license plate readers, facial recognition, surveillance camera networks, and cell-site simulators (CSS). Rayhunter is a new open source tool …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, E-Records, Internet, Legal Research

Why Techdirt Is Now A Democracy Blog (Whether We Like It Or Not)

TechDirt: “While political reporters are still doing their view-from-nowhere “Democrats say this, Republicans say that” dance, tech and legal journalists have been watching an unfortunately recognizable plan unfold — a playbook we’re all too familiar with. We’ve seen how technology can be wielded to consolidate power, how institutional guardrails can be circumvented through technical and …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Climate Change, Congress, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

DOGE Deletes Agency Behind Login.gov, IRS Direct File, Other Tech Projects

PC Mag: “The General Services Administration (GSA) has axed a technology unit that developed key public-facing IT services like Login.gov, the central login system for key government services like Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security. The decision, unearthed in an internal memo seen by Politico, was ordered by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, E-Government, E-Records, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, Internet, Legal Research

Trump Bid to Take Over Postal Service Could Threaten Mail Voting

Democracy Docket: “President Donald Trump may soon attempt to absorb the U.S. Postal Service (USPS), an independent agency, into his administration by issuing an executive order that reportedly would dissolve the service’s leadership. The order could allow the Trump administration to make mail voting — which was used by tens of millions of voters last …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Congress, Courts, E-Records, Government Documents, Legal Research

A Study of Mint Plants. A Device to Stop Bleeding. This Is the Scientific Research Ted Cruz Calls “Woke.”

ProPublica: “A few months ago, Sen. Ted Cruz announced that he had uncovered $2 billion of science grants funded by former President Joe Biden’s administration that prioritized “radical political perspectives” or “neo-Marxist theories.’’ His aides on a congressional committee assembled the list by searching the project descriptions for 699 key terms like “women,” “diversify,” “segregation” …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Congress, E-Government, Education, Health Care, Medicine

EFF Transition Memo to Trump Administration 2025

Contents  1. Introduction 2. Surveillance Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act Section 702 Facial Recognition Technology Border Search and Immigration Surveillance Surveillance Tech at the Border and the Virtual Wall Reproductive Justice and Digital Surveillance 2. Encryption and Cybersecurity End-to-End Encryption Client-Side Scanning and Other Recent U.S. Attempts At Encryption Backdoors Government Cybersecurity 4. Consumer Privacy Consumer …

Subjects: AI, Censorship, Civil Liberties, Copyright, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Digital Rights, Health Care, Internet, Legal Research, Legislation, Medicine, Patent and Trademark, Privacy, Transportation

Social Security News

Social Security News. A service of Hall & Rouse, P.C./© Charles T. Hall. Includes primary documents from DOGE and OPM, emails and chats from/to Social Security employees, author commentary, and articles from reliable media reporting on the fast moving actions to fire, using illegal terminations, as many staff and leadership as possible, around the country. …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Copyright, Economy, Financial System, Government Documents, HIV/AIDS, Legal Research, Social Media

FCC’s Knives Are Out for First Amendment

Fairness & Accurately in Reporting (FAIR): Brendan Carr, newly appointed chair of the Federal Communications Commission, is waging a war on the news media, perhaps the most dangerous front in de jure President Donald Trump and de facto President Elon Musk’s quest to destroy freedom of the press and the First Amendment. Trump’s FCC has …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Free Speech, Freedom of Information, Internet, Knowledge Management, Legal Research

The People Carrying Out Musk’s Plans at DOGE

“The New York Times [no paywall] identified 45 people within the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, a group formed by Elon Musk that in a short few weeks has radically upended federal agencies. Few members have formal Washington experience. Many are software engineers. All seem to have a clear mandate: Shrink and disrupt the federal …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Courts, Cybercrime, Cybersecurity, Economy, Government Documents, Legal Research