Category «Civil Liberties»

Can someone find out who you voted for?

NPR – No. Here is what you should know – “With less than [12 days] until Election Day and with early voting taking place across the U.S., many Americans are questioning the secrecy of their ballots. Election officials, voter registration organizations and election law experts — including New Mexico Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver …

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

Inside US Government-Bought Tool That Can Track Phones at Abortion Clinics

404 Media: “On a computer screen a map shows the movements of smartphones around the globe. Zooming into an abortion clinic in the south of the United States, the online tool shows more than 700 red dots over the clinic itself, each representing a phone, and by extension, a person. The tool, called Locate X and …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, Health Care, Legal Research, Legislation, Privacy, Transportation

LDF’s Thurgood Marshall Institute Launches New Digital Archive

“Today, the Legal Defense Fund (LDF)’s Thurgood Marshall Institute announced the launch of Recollection: A Civil Rights Legal Archive, a first-of-its kind, searchable archival collection of oral histories, legal briefs, press releases, and correspondence related to more than 6,000 cases the organization has litigated since its founding. This effort is the culmination of five years …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research

Election Meddling, Censorship, and More Bad News in 2024 Freedom on the Net Report

“Freedom House released its annual Freedom on the Net report. It marks the 14th consecutive year of declines in internet freedom around the world, and chronicles concerning government interventions in elections.” Around the world, voters have been forced to make major decisions about their future while navigating a censored, distorted, and unreliable information space.

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Internet, Legal Research, Privacy

How the Malleus maleficarum fueled the witch trial craze

Ars Technica: “Between 1400 and 1775, a significant upsurge of witch trials swept across early-modern Europe, resulting in the execution of an estimated 40,000–60,000 accused witches. Historians and social scientists have long studied this period in hopes of learning more about how large-scale social changes occur. Some have pointed to the invention of the printing …

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

The Civil Rights Implications of Federal Use of Facial Recognition Technology

The Civil Rights Implications of the Federal Use of Facial Recognition Technology. September 19, 2024. Meaningful federal guidelines and oversight for responsible FRT use have lagged behind the application of this technology in real-world scenarios. With the advent of biometric technology and its widespread use by both private and government entities, the Commission studied how …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Defense, Government Documents, Housing, Legal Research

Comics art against Project 2025

“Project 2025 is a detailed plan to shut you up, and shut you out. You matter, and you have a voice. Project 2025, also known as “Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise,” is a document created to be a roadmap for a second Donald Trump presidency. It was prepared by the ultra-conservative Heritage Foundation and …

Subjects: Censorship, Civil Liberties, Congress, Economy, Energy, Environmental Law, Financial System, Government Documents, Health Care, Knowledge Management, Legal Research, Legislation

The Moment of Truth

The Atlantic [unpaywalled] – “The reelection of Donald Trump would mark the end of George Washington’s vision for the presidency—and the United States. Today, America stands at such a moment. A vengeful and emotionally unstable former president—a convicted felon, an insurrectionist, an admirer of foreign dictators, a racist and a misogynist—desires to return to office …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, Government Documents, Legal Research

Pregnancy as a Crime: A Preliminary Report on the First Year After Dobbs

“Today, Pregnancy Justice, an organization dedicated to defending pregnant people’s rights, released its latest report, Pregnancy as a Crime: A Preliminary Report on the First Year After Dobbs. The report documents that in the first year after the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization decision, at least 210 pregnant people faced criminal charges for conduct associated with pregnancy, abortion, pregnancy loss, or birth. The report …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, Courts, Government Documents, Health Care, Legal Research

License Plate Readers Are Creating a US-Wide Database of More Than Just Cars

Wired [unpaywalled]: “…License-plate-recognition systems, broadly, work by first capturing an image of a vehicle; then they use optical character recognition (OCR) technology to identify and extract the text from the vehicle’s license plate within the captured image. Motorola-owned DRN sells multiple license-plate-recognition cameras: a fixed camera that can be placed near roads, identify a vehicle’s …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Government, E-Records, Privacy, Search Engines, Transportation

Police seldom disclose use of facial recognition despite false arrests

Washington Post via MSN – Hundreds of Americans have been arrested after being connected to a crime by facial recognition software, a Washington Post investigation has found, but many never know it because police seldom disclose their use of the controversial technology. Police departments in 15 states provided The Post with rarely seen records documenting …

Subjects: Civil Liberties, E-Records, Freedom of Information, Legal Research