When the FBI uses a national security letter (NSL) to force the cooperation of an ISP or phone company in the surveillance of a suspect, the agency typically slaps a gag order on the service provider to prevent it from revealing the existence of the NSL. Civil liberties groups have successfully challenged the DOJ on…
Category: Court
Airport cop sued for invasion of privacy
Christopher Sorey worked as a police officer for the Smyrna-Rutherford County Airport in Tennessee from August 2005 to November 2008. And according to a federal complaint, during that time he allegedly accessed the Integrative Criminal Justice Web Portal to obtain personal information on nine people, including their photographs, Social Security numbers, and addresses. In one…
Kaspersky gets “good samaritan” immunity
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals filed its opinion in Zango v. Kaspersky yesterday. Zango had sued Kaspersky Labs because Kaspersky’s software blocks Zango’s software. Kaspersky claimed that it was immune to lawsuit under the safe harbor provision of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 § 230. The district court had granted summary judgment in…
SCOTUS: Strip search of AZ teen illegal
In an important ruling on the rights of students, the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) ruled that the Safford Unified School District’s strip search of a middle school teenage girl accused of having prescription-strength ibuprofen was illegal. In its 8-1 ruling with Justice Clarence Thomas as the lone dissenter on the main question, the justices held…