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BiometricUpdate.com: “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has quietly deployed a new surveillance tool in its Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) arsenal – a smartphone app known as Mobile Fortify. Designed for ICE field agents, the app enables real-time biometric identity verification using facial recognition or contactless fingerprints. Based on leaked emails reported by 404 Media, the …
“The following products have been determined to contain either classified information or controlled unclassified information by the Executive Branch audited agencies and therefore cannot be publicly released. As such, they have not been posted to GAO’s website and have product numbers that end in C (classified) or SU (controlled unclassified information). Many also have an …
ProPublica: “A draft executive order viewed by ProPublica directs the secretary of transportation to “use all available authorities to eliminate or expedite” environmental reviews for launch licenses — a change Elon Musk’s SpaceX and others have long sought. The Trump administration is considering slashing rules meant to protect the environment and the public during commercial …
Christina Pagel – “With the help of amazing volunteers, I’ve converted my Trump action tracker spreadsheet into an easy to use website – now up to 740 actions and counting. Today I’m launching TrumpActionTracker.info – a live, searchable list of authoritarian‑style actions from Trump’s second term (over 740 actions so far). Logging actions of the …
Generative Artificial Intelligence and Copyright Law CRS Legal Sidebar – LSB10922, 7/18/25 – “Innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) have raised several new questions in the field of copyright law. Generative AI programs—such as Open AI’s DALL-E and ChatGPT programs, Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion program, and Midjourney’s self-titled program—are able to generate new images, texts, and …
Democracy Docket – “In recent months, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) has been contacting states demanding access to sensitive election and voting data. In Minnesota and Nevada, DOJ sent nearly identical letters seeking access to their state voter rolls. In Colorado, DOJ made an unprecedented, sweeping demand for all 2024 election records. And in …
CRS Report – Trump v. CASA, Inc. and Nationwide Injunctions During the Second Trump Administration, R48600, 07/16/2025. “On June 27, 2025, the Supreme Court decided Trump v. CASA, Inc., a trio of consolidated cases in which the Court limited the ability of federal courts to issue nationwide injunctions—court orders against the government that prevent the …
Human Rights Watch – “The United States government has subjected immigrants detained in three Florida facilities to abusive, degrading, and in some cases life-threatening conditions, Americans for Immigrant Justice, Human Rights Watch, and Sanctuary of the South said in a report released today. The 92-page report, “‘You Feel Like Your Life is Over’: Abusive Practices …
Government Executive: “President Trump created another new category of federal employee on Thursday evening, issuing an executive order to expand the number of political appointees who do not require Senate confirmation and will serve in policy-making or policy-advocating roles. While presidents can already tap an uncapped number of appointees to serve in Schedule C positions, …
Wired – no paywall – “The attackers were in thousands of corporate and government networks. They might still be there now. Behind the scenes of the SolarWinds investigation…According to the sources familiar with the incident, investigators suspected the hackers had breached the Justice Department server directly, possibly by exploiting a vulnerability in the SolarWinds software. …
The Atlantic – Justices Kagan, Jackson, and Sotomayor aren’t merely disagreeing with the majority’s technical readings of the law. “In recent Supreme Court terms, Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Ketanji Brown Jackson have issued defiant dissents that push back against a seemingly endless cascade of conservative opinions. The three tend to take somewhat different …
The INK – Anand Giridharadas: “Six months. It may not be long enough to grow a baby or build a house or land a liquor license, but it is enough time to break a country. To disembowel its institutions, to lay waste to its ideals, to darken its spirit, to make it crueler and harder …
