ProPublica – If You Live in the Southeast, It Could Be Just 1 in 5. A record number of women were elected to statehouses last year. But in the Southeast, where some legislatures are more than 80% male, representation is lagging as lawmakers pass bills that most impact women, like near-total abortion bans… Seven states,… Continue Reading
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Category Archives: Civil Liberties
Tools for Thinking About Censorship
Ex Urbe: “Was it a government action, or did they do it themselves because of pressure?” This is inevitably among our first questions when news breaks that any expressive work (a book, film, news story, blog post etc.) has been censored or suppressed by the company or group trusted with it (a publisher, a film… Continue Reading
New Digital Tool Provides State-by-State Analysis of High Court Rulings on Abortion
Center for Reproductive Rights: “Since the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated the federal constitutional right to abortion in its 2022 ruling in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, states have become the battlegrounds for abortion rights. State courts are deciding whether and how their own constitutions protect abortion rights, some for the first time. Plus, voters… Continue Reading
Is AI Friend or Foe: Legal Implications of Rapid Artificial Intelligence Adoption
Conklin, Michael, Is AI Friend or Foe: Legal Implications of Rapid Artificial Intelligence Adoption (April 25, 2023). Michael Conklin, Is AI Friend or Foe: Legal Implications of Rapid Artificial Intelligence Adoption, 26 ATLANTIC L.J. ___ (forthcoming 2023). , Available at SSRN: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4429539 “The term “artificial intelligence” (hereinafter “AI”) was coined in the 1950s and has… Continue Reading
NYC Public School Wipes Israel from the Map
The Free Press: “The poster at Brooklyn’s PS 261, where young students are taught ‘Arab Culture Arts,’ is part of a program funded by the Qatar Foundation. A New York City public school is being accused of “Jewish erasure” after a map from one of its classrooms surfaced showing all the countries of the Middle… Continue Reading
Legal Petition to Treasury Department Aims to Limit Imports from Key Seafood Companies Tied to Forced Labor
Ian Urbina – The Outlaw Ocean Project: “Shortly after we published our investigation globally, officials from several federal agencies asked if we might consider molding our findings into a formal legal petition under the Global Magnitsky Act. We agreed and recruited help from lawyers with an NGO called the Human Rights Foundation (HRF), which has… Continue Reading
EFF Unveils Its New Street Level Surveillance Hub
“The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today unveiled its new Street Level Surveillance hub, a standalone website featuring expanded and updated content on various technologies that law enforcement agencies commonly use to invade Americans’ privacy. The hub has new or updated pages on automated license plate readers, biometric surveillance, body-worn cameras, camera networks, cell-site simulators, drones… Continue Reading
Protecting Students from Faulty Software and Legislation: 2023 Year in Review
EFF: “Lawmakers, schools districts, educational technology companies and others keep rolling out legislation and software that threatens students’ privacy, free speech, and access to social media, in the name of “protecting” children. At EFF, we fought back against this overreach and demand accountability and transparency. Bad bills and invasive monitoring systems, though sometimes well-meaning, hurt… Continue Reading
The Atlas of Surveillance Hits Major Milestones: 2023 in Review
EFF: “If you haven’t checked out the Atlas of Surveillance recently, or ever before, you absolutely should. It includes a searchable database and an interactive map, and anyone can download the data for their own projects. As this collaboration with the University of Nevada Reno’s Reynolds School of Journalism (RSJ) finishes its fifth year, we… Continue Reading
How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7
The New York Times, December 28, 2023. ‘Screams Without Words’: How Hamas Weaponized Sexual Violence on Oct. 7. A Times investigation uncovered new details showing a pattern of rape, mutilation and extreme brutality against women in the attacks on Israel…A two-month investigation by The Times uncovered painful new details, establishing that the attacks against women… Continue Reading
International Threats to Freedom of Expression: 2023 Year in Review
EFF: “2023 has been an unfortunate reminder that the right to free expression is most fragile for groups on the margins, and that it can quickly become a casualty during global conflicts. Threats to speech arose out of the ongoing war in Palestine. They surfaced in bills and laws around the world that explicitly restrict… Continue Reading
Businessweek Jealousy List 2023
“News flash: We are kind of awesome! In these increasingly weird, anxious, foreboding times, what we make—some of the best journalism around—matters. A lot. And we don’t thank you nearly enough for tuning in to our coverage and for letting us claim your attention. But as awesome as we are, on occasion we’re reminded that… Continue Reading
