On Tuesday, I wrote a post about the questionable New York Times privacy story from July 30th involving the disclosure of Census Bureau information to the Department of Homeland Security. As I noted then, the story oddly did not mention the fact that all of the information disclosed was already publicly available from the Census […]
Author Archive | Orin Kerr
Patriot Act Error in Dahlia Lithwick’s NYT Column:
In her latest guest column in the New York Times, Dahlia Lithwick has fallen for one of the often-alleged-but-still-false claims about the Patriot Act. She writes: [W]hile I’m not reflexively opposed to the entire Patriot Act, two provisions do serve more to quell protest than terrorism. One section invented a broad new crime called “domestic terrorism” […]
Bogus Privacy Scandal Reported in The New York Times?
A week ago, The New York Times ran a story about the Census Bureau discosing information about Arab Americans to the Department of Homeland Security. The story creates the impression that this was a serious violation of privacy rights by overzealous government officials. Reuters ran a piece on the Times report, and the news spread […]
Although It’s Difficult
to know what to make of all the recent stories about ongoing terrorism investigations, this story from the NY Times suggests that there is a lot of important stuff going on right now. Some excerpts: A Pakistani man whose arrest provided information about the reconnaissance of financial institutions in New York, Newark and Washington was […]
Advice for Law Students:
Classes will be starting up at law schools around the country in a few weeks, and that means there are lots of nervous incoming 1Ls out there trying to prepare themselves. Fortunately, the blogosphere has lots of good advice. GW Law blogger Ambivalent Imbroglio has started up Blawg Wisdom, a new blog that promises “advice […]
Computer Crime Case Update List:
I started a free computer crime case update service back in January, 2002. Whenever a notable new case is decided in the area of computer crime law, I send out an e-mail to listmembers describing the case, excerpting the key analysis, and offering some commentary. The service now has about 650 subscribers, and averages about […]
John Perry Barlow
has figured out a plan to “throw [the Republicans] off their game” at the upcoming GOP convention in New York City: I propose the following: I want to organize a cadre of 20 to 50 of us. I want to dress us in suits and other plain pedestrian attire and salt us among the sidewalk […]
Pitching the Patriot Act:
Legal Times has an interesting article on the public relations campaigns being waged over the Patriot Act. An excerpt: While political spin is nothing new, the level of hype, hyperbole and outright hysteria surrounding the act is extraordinary. And with the presidential election months away and several key provisions of the Patriot Act set to […]
Anticipatory Search Warrants:
I have read a lot of Fourth Amendment cases over the last few years, but today I learned something new: several courts of appeals have allowed the government to obtain and execute “anticipatory” search warrants. According to these cases, the government can get a warrant even if their case for probable cause hinges on some […]
The E-Mail Privacy Act of 2004:
A few weeks ago, I wrote a long post about the First Circuit’s recent wiretapping decision in United States v. Councilman. As I explained in that post, Councilman is a dangerous decision for Internet privacy; a statutory fix to correct the decision is very much needed. The first of several bills attempting such a fix […]
Lithwick on Democrats and Judges:
Dahlia Lithwick has an article up on Slate asking why Democratic candidates are not talking more about the importance of who appoints judges. Lithwick seems genuinely puzzled. She reports on various theories floated at a recent American Constitution Society panel that included several distinguished legal scholars. The theories ranged from the observation that most people […]
New Article of Mine Up on SSRN:
I have a new law review article up on SSRN, entitled The Fourth Amendment and New Technologies: Constitutional Myths and the Case for Caution. It is forthcoming in the Michigan Law Review, and likely will be published in September or October. (I have had an early version of the abstract up for some time, but […]
The Patriot Act and Criminal Law:
Alex Tabarrok responds to my analysis of his Patriot Act criticism. Alex concludes that I have committed “the lawyer’s vice,” namely, “to miss the forest for trees.” He writes: The point is that laws passed for one purpose are often used for other purposes not originally intended (RICO, anyone?). . . . In this case, […]
Week in the Life of a Defense Attorney:
If you’re a law student interested in practicing criminal law, you should be reading Ken Lammers’ CrimLaw blog. In particular, read the regular “Week in the Life of a Criminal Defense Attorney” posts, where Ken goes day-by-day through his week. There’s a new one up today; check it out.
Deconstructing claims about the Patriot Act:
Over at Marginal Revolution, Alex Tabarrok has a post suggesting that the Patriot Act is a bad law because it has been used to do some dumb things. Here is the post, which was recently Instalinked: Yeah, I feel much safer nowThe USA Patriot Act has so far been used to fine PayPal $10 million […]