Ninth Circuit finds First Amendment right to information on Arizona executions using lethal injection - FIRST AMENDMENT COALITION. Minnesota Now Requires A Criminal Conviction Before People Can Lose Their Property To Forfeiture. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Defender of the Constitution - Andrew Cohen. The Boston bombing suspect is back in federal court to argue he has a constitutional right to speak to his lawyers without "special" restrictions on his communications.
Even if you have little sympathy for Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, you ought to support his lawyers' efforts to curtail the government's sprawling use of so-called "Special Administrative Measures" in his case. Whatever you think of him, and the capital crimes of which he stands accused, he has a right to counsel, a right to counsel who can privately and effectively communicate with him, and the Justice Department's efforts to undermine that right in this instance are unfair and perhaps even unconstitutional.
First employed in 1996, SAMs are designed to prevent criminal defendants— before, during or after their trial—from inciting violence behind bars through secret communications with their lawyers or others. Tsarnaev's Argument. Why NSA’s Bulk Data Seizures Are Illegal and Unconstitutional » Publications » The Federalist Society. Why NSA’s Bulk Data Seizures Are Illegal and Unconstitutional October 21, 2013 Randy E.
Barnett, Jim Harper Why NSA’s Bulk Data Seizures Are Illegal and Unconstitutional Randy E. Introduction I. In Ruling Ordering Times Reporter to Testify Against Source, Dissenting Judge Defends Freedom of the Press. Court Tells Reporter to Testify in Case of Leaked C.I.A. Data. First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles v. NSA. Twenty-two organizations including Unitarian church groups, gun ownership advocates, and a broad coalition of membership and political advocacy organizations filed suit against the National Security Agency for violating their First Amendment right of association by illegally collecting their call records.
The coalition is represented by EFF. At the heart of First Unitarian Church of Los Angeles v. NSA is the bulk telephone records collection program that was confirmed by the publication of an order from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) in June of 2013. The Director of National Intelligence (DNI) further confirmed that this formerly secret document was authentic, and part of a broader program to collect all major telecommunications customers’ call history. Frequently Asked Questions About First Unitarian v. Daniel McGowan Back In Jail Days After Huffington Post Article. I was supposed to meet Daniel McGowan for coffee today, and got an email from him last night that his work pass was denied.
The revocation of his pass was a surprise, because McGowan has done everything possible to adjust himself to life post-prison, including securing a job at a law firm, and reporting to work and to his halfway house every day on time. However, he expected to be able to go back to work on Friday. Everything You Wanted to Know About the DoJ/AP Controversy. Since news that the Justice Department had secretly obtained journalists’ phone records broke, the story has been developing quickly.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and Miranda Rights: The public safety exception and terrorism cases. Photo provided by FBI via Getty Images Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will not hear his Miranda rights before the FBI questions him Friday night.
He will have to remember on his own that he has a right to a lawyer, and that anything he says can be used against him in court, because the government won’t tell him. In Depth: The District Court's Remarkable Order Striking Down the NSL Statute. On Friday, EFF received the long-awaiting ruling on its 2011 petition to set aside a National Security Letter (NSL) issued to a telecommunications company.
The petition challenged the constitutionality of one of five national security letter statutes, 18 U.S.C. § 2709. And what a ruling it was. Federal Judge Finds National Security Letters Unconstitutional, Bans Them. Attorney General Eric Holder: US Government Has Authority to Target & Kill US Citizens on US Soil. US Attorney General Eric Holder (Photo from C-SPAN) Republican Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, who sent three letters to CIA director nominee John Brennan requesting an answer on “whether the president has the power to authorize lethal force, such as a drone strike, against a US citizen on US soil,” finally received an answer from Attorney General Eric Holder.
The answer indicates the administration of President Barack Obama does, in fact, believe it has the power to assassinate US citizens on US soil with lethal force. Holder, after a few paragraphs contextualizing his ultimate answer, told Paul in a letter: Why We Should All Care About the Today's Senate Vote on the FISA Amendments Act, the Warrantless Domestic Spying Bill. Today is an incredibly important vote for the future of your digital privacy, but some in Congress are hoping you won’t find out.
Finally, after weeks of delay, the Senate will start debate on the dangerous FISA Amendments Act at 10 am Eastern and vote on its re-authorization by the end of the day. The FISA Amendments Act is the broad domestic spying bill passed in 2008 in the wake of the warrantless wiretapping scandal. It expires at the end of the year and some in Congress wanted to re-authorize it without a minute of debate. The good news is—thanks for your phone calls, emails, and tweets—Congress will now be forced to debate it, which means we can affect its outcome.
US flag desecration. When Did Dissent Become a Crime? America's Police State on Steroids at the Conventions. Court declares 92 Occupy Chicago arrests unconstitutional. By David EdwardsThursday, September 27, 2012 15:25 EDT A judge in Cook County, Illinois on Thursday dismissed over 90 cases against Occupy Chicago activists on the grounds that they violated the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
Judge Thomas Donnelly declared that the city’s park curfew law that was used to arrest activists in Grant Park last October was “unconstitutional both on its face and as applied and all complaints in this case are dismissed with prejudice,” according to the Chicago chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG). “The Occupy Chicago demonstrators were subject to constantly changing rules and regulations that ended in a directive that they had to be constantly moving in order to protest,” the judge explained in his 37-page opinion (PDF). “The police would promulgate a rule; when the protesters would comply, the police would change the rule,” he added.
David Edwards David Edwards has served as an editor at Raw Story since 2006. Bill of Rights Defense Committee. More NATO Summit Activists Charged; Five Linked by Two Informants. Victims of Night Raid Describe Being Disappeared By Police Ahead of NATO Summit. Robert, one of the two activists released Friday night (photo: Steve Horn)
New Jersey Muslims sue to protect their rights from NYPD spying. Thursday 7 June, in a historic move, eight Muslims from New Jersey filed a federal lawsuit against the City of New York. The case, Hassan et al v City of New York, is the first ever to challenge the NYPD's intelligence programmes. The lawsuit seeks to remedy the targeting of Muslims for surveillance "based solely upon their religion" by the New York City Police Department. In addition, plaintiffs are seeking to end the NYPD surveillance programme, which the lawsuit calls unconstitutional, and to secure the destruction of any and all data and information gathered by the NYPD as a result of unlawful spying.
A quick glance through leaked NYPD intelligence reports on Muslim communities in New York City and Newark, New Jersey should make Americans feel uneasy about the activities of law enforcement in the United States. Lawsuit alleges FBI violated Muslims' freedom of religion. Backward, Christian Soldiers. Late last summer, Mikey Weinstein broke up a fight between Crystal and Ginger, the guard dogs trained to protect him and his family from a violent reckoning with Christian zealots. For the 55-year-old civil rights activist committed to ridding the US military of religious intolerance, it was a refreshingly secular and evenly matched bout.
Weinstein is, after all, famously combative, both pugnacious and profane, with the bearing and sensibility of a mastiff.