Category: Privacy Law
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Who Gets the Access? Government Overreach in Accessing Encrypted Communications
By Preston Lieu — Imagine living in a world where your personal information is no longer confidential: a society in which the United States federal government has access to almost everything about you, ranging from your healthcare information to your…
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“A Long Step Down the Totalitarian Path” – Justice William O. Douglas: A Short Commentary on Stop-and-Frisk Practices
By Jaden Yun — In landmark case Terry v. Ohio (1968), Martin McFadden, a highly experienced Cleveland police detective dressed in plain clothes, flagged two individuals, Terry and Chilton, as suspicious after noticing that they were “pac[ing] alternately along an…
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ShotSpotter’s Live Gunshot Detection System Violates New Jersey’s Stop and Frisk Laws
By Aina Marzia — In September 2024, the Chicago Police Department (CPD) removed over 2,000 live gunshot alert systems from ShotSpotter (later renamed to SoundThinking). For the first time in six years, no live sound feed was being s
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FISA and the USA PATRIOT Act: Reforms and Legal Implications
By Lizzie Evanko — Congress passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in 1978, in an effort to establish a legal framework for the physical and electronic surveillance of foreign entities. FISA allowed the federal government to collect intelligence on…
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Electronic Surveillance, the Fourth Amendment, and the NYPD’s “Muslim Surveillance Program”
By Annie Akbar — In a letter to James Madison after the French Revolution had begun, Thomas Jefferson wrote, “The earth belongs always to the living generation… Every constitution, then, and every law, naturally expires at the end of 19…
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The Content-Specific Doctrine: The Right to be Secure in Digital Effects
By Xander de los Reyes — The Fourth Amendment’s original intent was to protect Americans from unreasonable searches and seizures. At the time they were drafting the Constitution, the Founding Fathers remembered these violations of privacy as physical trespasses committed…
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When Two Worlds Collide: Evaluating Free Speech and National Security Claims around Trump’s WeChat Ban
By Nalin Ranjan — Immigrants have come a long way from hopelessly striving toward the 20th-century ideal of full assimilation into American society. Descendants of Jewish immigrants, whom many believed could not be trusted, can now proudly take credit for…
