On October 7, the Joint Committee on the Judiciary of the Massachusetts legislature held a marathon hearing on "Protected Classes. Privacy, and Data Collection Legislation". To be fair, Boston.com and the Boston Herald both reproduced … [Read more...]
It’s Time To Push Hard On Surveillance Reform
The part of the PATRIOT Act that has been used to legitimate the mass collection of all of our phone call information, and much else besides, is a wicked awful provision known as "Section 215." Section 215 allows the FBI - and, it appears, … [Read more...]
New disclosures on spy centers lead to protests in Boston, nationwide today
Looks like the surveillance state has put its foot in it again. The New York Times has revealed that since "early 2012", the National Counterterrorism Center now has access to all data, not minimized for privacy in any way, that was … [Read more...]
MA-5: Addivinola and Clark tussle over surveillance, differ only on wiretapping bill *UPDATED*
UPDATE: To reflect substantive changes in information received from the Addivinola campaign, the title of this article and portions of the analysis have been changed to more accurately reflect Councillor Addivinola's positions. The … [Read more...]
Coakley channeling the NSA? New wiretapping bill would legalize mass wiretaps at switching stations
At a time when rolling back federal surveillance programs seems particularly challenging, we can still have a major effect here at the state level. Recently, Attorney-General Martha Coakley proposed a new bill that would actually … [Read more...]
Massachusetts to imitate Congressional FISA cave-in?
Just a week after Congress caved in and voted to expand the federal government's ability to monitor ordinary Americans' emails and phone calls, the Massachusetts legislature has voted to do something very similar. Carol Rose, Executive … [Read more...]
Congress caved. We’re suing.
For the record, here's the text of the Fourth Amendment: The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but … [Read more...]
Police entry onto private property to arrest Barry Scott was unconstitutional without a warrant
I was challenged when I argued in a previous posting that Provincetown police lacked authority to enter upon private property to arrest Barry Scott for allegedly playing loud music and stirring up more noise with a few words of protest. The … [Read more...]