The federal justice minister is considering a new law that would allow police to conduct random breathalyzer tests on drivers, regardless of whether they suspect motorists have been drinking. Justice Minister Rob Nicholson raised the prospect recently at a meeting of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, according to MADD chief executive Andrew Murie. If random testing…
Category: Surveillance
FBI: Arrest in Erin Andrews nude video case
The Associated Press reports: A Chicago-area man accused of taping surreptitious nude videos of ESPN reporter Erin Andrews in a hotel room was arrested at Chicago’s O’Hare airport Friday night, the FBI said. Michael David Barrett faces federal charges of interstate stalking for taking the videos, trying to sell them to celebrity Web site TMZ…
Tip of the Hat, Wag of the Finger: PATRIOT Edition
Kevin Bankston of EFF writes: Yesterday’s Senate Judiciary mark-up of legislation to renew expiring provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act was extremely disheartening–in particular because of many committee Democrats’ failure to support new civil liberties reforms to PATRIOT(see our summary here). Those Senators who failed to stand foursquare behind Americans’ right to privacy against government…
Lawmakers Cave to FBI in Patriot Act Debate
David Kravets reports: Powerful Senate leaders on Thursday bowed to FBI concerns that adding privacy protections to an expiring provision of the Patriot Act could jeopardize “ongoing” terror investigations. The Patriot Act was adopted six weeks after the 2001 terror attacks, and greatly expanded the government’s power to intrude into the private lives of Americans…