Shane Harris writes: More than a decade after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, a set of extraordinary and secretive surveillance programs conducted by the National Security Agency has been institutionalized, and they have grown. These special programs are conducted under the code name Ragtime, and are divided into several subcomponents, according to the new book Deep State:…
Category: U.S.
Justices Wrestle Over Allowing DNA Sampling at Time of Arrest
Adam Liptak reports on Tuesday’s oral argument in the Supreme Court in Maryland v. King, a case that deals with warrantless DNA collection from all arrestees: About halfway through a Supreme Court argument on Tuesday over whether the police may take DNA samples from people they arrest, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. reflected on just how momentous the issue…
Document shows how much data cops suck up from suspects’ cell phones
Timothy B. Lee writes: The courts have traditionally allowed the police to inspect any items a suspect is carrying when they arrest him or her. But in the past, the information the police could obtain in this fashion was fairly limited. The advent of the smartphone has changed all that. A new document uncovered by…
Supreme Court dismisses Amnesty International’s challenge to FISA Amendments Act
Kevin Robillard reports: A closely divided Supreme Court threw out a challenge to the government’s terrorist surveillance programs, arguing journalists, human rights groups and lawyers could not prove they had been harmed by a government program monitoring foreign communications. In the 5-4 ruling, the court’s conservatives sided with President Barack Obama’s administration in arguing that…