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Williamson v. United States Brief: Ten Months of Warrantless Video Surveillance Violates the Fourth Amendment
In October 2018, law enforcement, without a warrant, surreptitiously installed two video cameras near the top of utility poles to surveil Rolando Williamson’s home.The Eleventh Circuit reasoned that the police did not require a warrant because only parts of Williamson’s home and yard were visible from the alleyway. Cato Institute filed an amicus brief supporting Williamson, arguing that partial exposure does not automatically extinguish Fourth Amendment protections.
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Laughing Through the Storm: How Humor Can Help Us Not Only Survive but Thrive in Turbulent Times
The world feels heavy again. In a time such as this, laughter can seem almost obscene. Who dares to joke while the world burns? Yet, perhaps the better question is: how can we not?
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Details of DHS Agreement Reveal Risks of Trump Administration’s Use of Social Security Data for Voter Citizenship Checks
A recently released agreement gives the Department of Homeland Security access to hundreds of millions of Americans’ Social Security data. It contains alarmingly few provisions to ensure accuracy and privacy, experts say.
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Nationwide Pro-Bono Legal Support Network Launched in Response to Surge of Antisemitic Incidents
In response to a sustained surge of violence and hate toward Jews and Jewish institutions across the United States, the Anti-Defamation League and Gibson Dunn have launched a coordinated network of law firms to provide free legal assistance to victims of antisemitism.
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Azruddin Mohamed Arrested in Guyana
Azruddin Mohamed’s case is significant: it illustrates how business, political ambition, resource-exports, and cross-border law-enforcement intersect in a small, oil-and-gold-rich country like Guyana, and it demonstrates the global reach of U.S. legal and sanctions regimes.
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Texas Counties Are Looking into “Potential Noncitizens” on Voter Rolls. Here’s What They’re Finding.
The voters were flagged after being checked against a federal database. Some officials question its reliability, aspeople listed as potential noncitizens have confirmed that they are, in fact, U.S. citizens.
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Bipartisan Lawmakers Urge Trump to End $100k Visa Fee
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is urging President Donald Trump to end his $100,000 fee for H-1B visa holders. the Congressional members warned that businesses will struggle with the new fee and it will weaken American competitiveness globally.
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Trump’s National Guard Deployments Raise Worries About State Sovereignty
In two instances – Portland and Chicago – President Trump’s campaign to send the National Guard into Democratic-leaning cities he falsely describes as crime-ridden, has turned to out-of-state National Guard troops. Presidents who have federalized National Guard forces in the past, even against a governor’s will, have done so in response to a crisis in the troops’ home state. But the decision to send one state’s National Guard troops into a different state without the receiving governor’s consent is both extraordinary and unprecedented, experts on national security law.
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New Pentagon Policy Is an Unprecedented Attempt to Undermine Press Freedom
Recent changes in a Pentagon policy threaten journalists’ ability to cover the Department of Defense, because it could curb their rights to report information not authorized by the government for release. As a First Amendment expert, I believe the Pentagon policy change represents an unprecedented development in the Trump administration’s offensive against the press and a historic departure from previous administrations’ policies.
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We Found That More Than 170 U.S. Citizens Have Been Held by Immigration Agents. They’ve Been Kicked, Dragged and Detained for Days.
The government doesn’t track how many citizens are held by immigration agents. We found more than 170 cases this year where citizens were detained at raids and protests. More than 20 citizens have reported being held for over a day without being able to call their loved ones or a lawyer. In some cases their families couldn’t find them.
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Trump’s New $100K Visa Fee Could Worsen State Doctor Shortages, Experts Say
Many immigrant physicians help fill gaps in rural communities’ health care systems thanks in part to the H-1B visa, which allows skilled foreign workers to come work in the U.S.
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Trump’s H-1B Visa Change: What to Know
The H-1B visa program has helped fill gaps in critical sectors like health care and technology, though it has faced criticism that it adversely affects American workers. The Trump administration’s move to sharply increase the fee for new H-1B petitions has raised concerns about its potential effects on the U.S. economy.
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A Year Before Trumps Crime Rhetoric, Dallas Voted to Increase Police. The City Is Wrestling with the Consequences.
Despite drops in violent crime last year, a nonprofit called Dallas HERO convinced voters to approve a measure requiring the city to grow its police force to 4,000. Dallas HERO’s leaders have included hotel owner and GOP donor Monty Bennett and Pete Marocco, whom Trump picked to run the U.S. Agency for International Development.
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For Trump’s Perceived Enemies, the Process May Be the Punishment
Even when an individual is not convicted, the process of defending against charges can itself be a form of punishment. This recognition is one of the reasons that the DOJ has maintained independence from the president. By violating the tradition of staying out of politics, the Justice Department in the Trump administration has opened the door for the president to seek retribution on his perceived political enemies. The mere act of putting them through the criminal process ensures that they suffer, regardless of their guilt or innocence.
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Despite Widespread Interest, Only 3 States Passed License Plate Reader Laws This Year
Lawmakers in at least 16 states this year introduced bills to regulate the use of automated license plate readers responsible for collecting large amounts of data on drivers across the country. But just three states —Arkansas, Idaho and Virginia —enacted laws. Critics say automated license plate readers raise data and privacy concerns.
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The long view
The Paranoid Style in American Oversight, Part II
The criticism of the techniques used in the FBI’s investigation of the false electors plot, much like the critiques of how it was opened, do not bear scrutiny. The days of the FBI trying to speak only through indictments are apparently over, and Director Kash Patel’s willingness to endlessly provide piecemeal documents, without any explanation, annotation, or context to the bureau’s most vituperative critics is just one more sign not that a page has merely been turned, but that it has been ripped out of the book entirely and burned to cinders.
Presidential Discretion and the Insurrection Act
The Supreme Court, in Trump v. Illinois, further diminished the president’s ability to use § 12406 to federalize the National Guard in order to directly interfere in domestic activities in pursuit of his most controversial policies. With § 12406 now unavailable, the likelihood of the current president resorting to the Insurrection Act, the statute affording him the most oppressive domestic suppression capabilities, has only increased.