Accurate, Focused Research on Law, Technology and Knowledge Discovery With Daily Postings Since 2002
EPIC: “The Department of Justice has published the 2013 FISA Report. The brief report provides summary information about the government’s use of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. In 2012 the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court granted 1,789 FISA orders and 212 “Section 215” orders. In 2013, there were 1,588 requests to conduct FISA surveillance, with 34 modifications. …
“The use of affirmative action programs in college admissions has roiled campuses and the public for years, leading to state-passed laws banning the practice and to the April 22nd Supreme Court ruling upholding a Michigan voter initiative banning the use of racial preferences. But while the debate and the battles continue, a new Pew Research Center poll finds that …
Alexia D. Cooper, Ph.D., Matthew R. Durose, Howard N. Snyder, Ph.D. April 22, 2014. NCJ 244205 “Examines the 5-year post-release offending patterns of persons released from state prisons in 2005 by offender characteristics, prior criminal history, and commitment offense. It provides estimates on the number and types of crimes former inmates commit both prior to their …
Ellen Nakashima’s article [snipped] – Verizon in January filed a legal challenge to the constitutionality of the National Security Agency’s program that collects billions of Americans’ call-detail records, but a surveillance court rejected it, according to newly declassified documents and individuals with knowledge of the matter. In denying the phone company’s petition in March, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court …
“EFF recently filed comments with the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB) concerning Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act (FAA), one of the key statutes under which the government claims it can conduct mass surveillance of innocent people’s communications and records from inside the US. EFF maintains that the government’s activities under Section 702 that we know …
“In a letter to the White House, a coalition of US organizations urged the Administration to recognize the recent opinion by the Court of Justice, the highest court in Europe, that ended a European data retention mandate. The European law required telephone and internet companies to retain metadata on customers for national security purposes. The European Court of Justice …
CRS – The Bureau of Prisons (BOP): Operations and Budget. Nathan James, Analyst in Crime Policy, March 4, 2014 “The Bureau of Prisons (BOP) is the largest correctional agency in the country, in terms of the number of prisoners under its jurisdiction. The BOP must confine any offender convicted and sentenced to a term of imprisonment in a federal court. Changes in federal criminal …
Bassok, Or, The Court Cannot Hold (April 10, 2014). Journal of Law and Politics, Vol. 30, 2014. Available at SSRN: http://ssrn.com/abstract=2423398 “In recent decades the American Supreme Court has been struggling with two main issues: articulating America’s constitutional identity and the decline of legal expertise in the public mind. First, since American national identity is …
“An individual deported by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in fiscal year 2013 was most likely to be a Mexican male about 30 years old, according to examination of the latest available agency records obtained from ICE by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University under the Freedom of Information Act. However, the number …
CRS – Unlawfully Present Aliens, Higher Education, In-State Tuition, and Financial Aid: Legal Analysis. Kate M. Manuel, Legislative Attorney, March 28, 2014 “The existence of a sizable population of “DREAMers” in the United States has prompted questions about unlawfully present aliens’ eligibility for admission to public institutions of higher education, in-state tuition, and financial aid. The term DREAMer is …
CRS – Reform of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Courts: A Brief Overview. Jared P. Cole, Legislative Attorney; Andrew Nolan, Legislative Attorney. March 31, 2014. “Recent disclosures of various National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance and data collection programs have prompted increased attention on the government’s collection of foreign intelligence. Pursuant to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) …
McCutcheon v FEC. Apppeal from the United States District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 12-536. Argued October 8, 2013 – Decided April 2, 2014. “The Government has a strong interest, no less critical to our democratic system, in combatting corruption and its appearance. We have, however, held that this interest must be limited to a …
