Archive | Uncategorized

As previously noted, last week was the Federalist Society’s inaugural Executive Branch Review Conference.  The Federalist Society has posted video of all the programs on its website here.  I was on the Dodd-Frank panel, which had the unfortunate fate of being scheduled at the same time that Jonathan was speaking on the Obamacare panel, which […]

More than two weeks ago, when the first Guardian/Greenwald leaks about NSA were appearing, I suggested that Americans would be a lot less exercised about the “collection first” approach to phone data if they understood how NSA’s minimization procedures constrained the agency in dealing with US person data: I would not be surprised to discover […]

I’ve blogged here and here about the weakness of the criticisms of Eric Holder relating to the James Rosen search warrant. Holder has now responded to his critics here in responses to questions submitted by Rep. Goodlatte of the House Judiciary Committee. One interesting detail in Holder’s responses is that it sheds light on Holder’s […]

You know how sometimes different people remember the same event slightly differently? Here’s an example: in 1378, the cardinals were electing a new Pope, and the people of Rome were putting substantial pressure on the cardinals to elect a Roman pope. During this process, Cardinal Orsini went out to talk to the crowd. Here’s how […]

Contrary to the claims of some politicians and others who should know better, Edward Snowden did not commit treason. Treason is a specific crime defined in the Constitution, and it is particularly difficult to prosecute. As Seth Lipsky wrote in the WSJ this week: [T]reason turns out to be unique in American law. It is […]

As I expected, the media has paid very little attention to Monday’s Supreme Court decision in Salinas v. Texas, the “right to remain silent” case. On the other hand, I was glad to see VC readers so engaged with the case in the comment threads: 349 comments and counting. I hope to get more of […]

This morning the Supreme Court decided a very important criminal procedure case, Salinas v. Texas, by a 5-4 vote. I’m guessing that you haven’t heard of Salinas. And it probably won’t get much attention in the press. But it should: Salinas is likely to have a significant impact on police practices. And it’s a fascinating […]

Foreign Policy has published my article on how attribution can be used to deter foreign governments’cyberespionage.  Excerpts below: The Obama-Xi summit in Sunnylands ended without any Chinese concessions on cyber-espionage. This came as no surprise; cyber spying has been an indispensable accelerant for China’s military and economic rise. And though Beijing may someday agree that […]

In the Washington Post, Bart Gellman has a fascinating story on the NSA’s surveillance practices. There’s a lot to chew on in the article, but one interesting part is a discussion of the legal issue that led to the Goldsmith/Comey confrontation over the legality of NSA surveillance in 2004. Gellman writes: Telephone metadata was not […]

When a new Justice arrives, it is common to ask how the new Justice might vote differently than the Justice she has replaced. A recent speech by retired Justice John Paul Stevens gives us relative clarity on one example. In his speech, Justice Stevens explained that he likely would have voted with the majority in […]

The President is, among other things, the Commander-in-Chief of the military. So if a President makes comments that could be interpreted as applying to cases pending in military courts, could those comments constitute “unlawful command influence”? Perhaps so. Stars and Stripes reports that President Obama’s remarks urging stern sanctions for members of the military found […]

A Reason article argues: In the first flush of stories about how the National Security Agency is surveilling American citizens, one stomach-turning revelation hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves: we get the surveillance state we deserve because rank political partisanship trumps bedrock principle every goddamn time on just about every goddamn issue…. The same predictable, […]

Ilya Shapiro (Cato) has the scoop. An excerpt: On April 29, Sir Jay Merchant was knighted by Ambassador Rudolf Bekink on behalf of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands. Merchant is the “international relations adviser” in the Office of the Administrator of CMS, which is the agency’s highest executive office. While this may seem like just […]

“Tap It: NSA Slow Jam,” from ReasonTV, Remy, and Meredith Bragg. Very funny, and nicely executed.