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The leaked news about the PRISM surveillance program has been the big news story today. The details are murky, but one question that we should be asking is whether the program is legal. From what I’ve seen so far, it sounds like the program is the way the government is implementing the FISA Amendments Act […]

It turns out that the FISA court order disclosed yesterday — the one forcing Verizon to turn over all telephone metadata — was just the latest renewal of a court order that the government first obtained seven years ago. So I gather that every 90 days, they go back and say, “yes, getting the entire […]

Bart Gellman and Laura Poitras have a huge new story in the Washington Post: The National Security Agency and the FBI are tapping directly into the central servers of nine leading U.S. Internet companies, extracting audio, video, photographs, e-mails, documents and connection logs that enable analysts to track a person’s movements and contacts over time. […]

There may be a lot less to the NSA “scandal” than meets the eye.  In an article for Foreign Policy, I explain why I am quite confident that the program underlying the FISA court order is lawful: [T]his is not some warrantless or extra-statutory surveillance program.  The government had to persuade up to a dozen […]

Over at The Guardian, Glenn Greenwald has a report on a leaked top secret court order apparently issued by Judge Vinson of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court ordering Verizon to turn over all metadata on all domestic calls (including calls between the U.S. and a foreign country) for a period of 90 days from April […]

I’ve seen many sources so stating, and some inferring from that the government was indeed contemplating prosecuting Rosen — contrary to Attorney General Holder’s later statements — because, otherwise, why would they worry about his fleeing? But, as I read the affidavit, the government wasn’t specifically saying that Rosen was a flight risk. Rather, unless […]

Last month, on May 7, the Louisiana Supreme Court struck down a school voucher plan. (Jonathan reported on it here.) Now I’ve got a post up about the decision on the Reason Foundation web site. Here’s an excerpt: This May 7, the Louisiana Supreme Court ruled 6–1, in Louisiana Federation of Teachers v. Louisiana, that […]

Next week the Federalist Society is presenting an “Executive  Branch Review Conference” which it confidently bills as the “First Annual.”  Jonathan and I are on the program in addition to multiple others.  CLE credit is available.  Information is available here.

I’m delighted to report that James Daily and Ryan Davidson, bloggers at Law and the Multiverse and authors of the new book The Law of Superheroes, will be guest-blogging here this week. Both authors are recently minted lawyers, and James Daily is a research associate with the Stanford University Hoover Institution’s Project on Commercializing Innovation, […]

The Item (Sumter, S.C.) reports on the story, and on the fact that the man (Richard Clark) “was deemed not guilty by reason of insanity by 3rd Circuit Judge R. Ferrell Cothran.” State mental health authorities had concluded the man was insane, and the prosecutor agreed that “Clark burned the house down because he believed […]

This is a post about the Red Wedding, portrayed in the most recent episode of the HBO show Game of Thrones, and first described in George R.R. Martin’s book  A Storm of Swords. If you want to avoid plot spoilers, don’t read below the fold. If you ignore this warning, don’t complain about spoilers.

Here are some thoughts on Maryland v. King, today’s new case allowing DNA testing on arrest under the Fourth Amendment: 1) It’s hugely important as a practical matter, but it’s not very interesting from a theoretical or academic standpoint. The difference between the two opinions largely hinges on how you characterize the purpose of the […]

After hearing about today’s 5-4 decision in Maryland v. King, holding (as Jonathan notes below) that the government can collect and analyze DNA incident to arrest without a warrant, some might be surprised that conservative Justice Scalia voted for the defense side while the liberal Justice Breyer voted for the government. They shouldn’t be. In […]

The Supreme Court decided Maryland v. King this morning.  By a 5-4 vote, the Court held that when making an arrest supported by probable cause, the police may take a cheek swab of an arrestee’s DNA as part of the standard booking procedure.  Justice Kennedy wrote for the Court, joined by the Chief Justice and Justices […]

My friend Jonathan Rauch, whose writing as well as analysis I’ve long much admired, has a new short Kindle book out, Denial: My 25 Years Without a Soul (sold for only $1.99). Rauch is a visiting scholar at brookings and the author of the more traditional books, including Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free […]