Hundreds of New Documents Reveal Expanded Military Role in Domestic Surveillance

• Should signing a petition be a confidential act?

  The Supreme Court has accepted a new case on to its docket concerning the constitutionality of a Washington State law being used as the basis to publish the names of signers of a petition to restrict gay rights.

  
  
• Secret evidence is incompatible with the rule of law

  While the use of secret evidence may be acceptable initially (as part of an investigation or short-term detention while more evidence is gathered), the defense needs access to this evidence. Without it, any trial or legal process is simply unfair.

  
  
• Lawyers should leave their laptops at home when traveling abroad

  There has always been an exception to search and seizure law at border crossings. In theory, this is nothing new -- attorneys traveling with confidential paper files could also have them searched. But the ease of carrying vast numbers of confidential documents in electronic form raises the bar on this.

  
  
• Why can the TSA subpoena bloggers to get at their sources?

  The TSA issued a directive aimed at instituting new security measures. After two bloggers published it, the TSA issued subpoenas that sought to compel them to reveal their sources. Why did the TSA think they could do this, and did they have the power to enforce their request?

  
  
• Could you scrap Microsoft Office applications?

  IBM's Lotus Symphony is a free-of-charge alternative to the ubiquitous Microsoft Office suite, based on Sun's open source OpenOffice software. It purports to remain compatible with Microsoft's ".doc" format (and newer incarnations), while removing licensing costs (but, not of course, support costs, since people still need training, technical support still costs money, etc.). Now they've decided to walk the walk.

  
  

Post title: Hundreds of New Documents Reveal Expanded Military Role in Domestic Surveillance

Authored by: krisnelson

Date posted: Oct 16, 2007

Categorized as: constitution • law • privacy • search and seizure • wiretap

Tagged with: law

Alternate URL: /2007/10/hundreds-of-new-documents-reveal.html