Tim Hull reports: Two high school students filed a constitutional class action against their school district and the principal who banned them from extracurricular activities after seeing MySpace pictures of the girls kissing and licking a phallus-shaped lollipop and wearing lingerie decorated with dollar bills. The federal lawsuit seeks to reverse the sports ban and…
CA: City activists angry at asset snooping
Ryan McCarthy reports: Researching and listing assets belonging to members of a citizens group smacks of Chicago-style politics and tries to intimidate residents challenging a major commercial project, Citizens to Preserve Marysville’s Parks members say. “We’re talking Russia,” Beverly Hayes said Friday. “We’re talking Chicago politics.” Hayes called the effort snooping, said it’s unprecedented and…
In Congress, a call to review internal cybersecurity policies
Ellen Nakashima and Carol D. Leonnig report: House leaders on Friday called for an “immediate and comprehensive assessment” of congressional cybersecurity policies, a day after an embarrassing data breach that led to the disclosure of details of confidential ethics investigations. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Minority Leader John A. Boehner (R-Ohio) said they had asked…
Article: Who Can Sue Over Government Surveillance?
Scott Michelman, staff attorney for the ACLU, has an article (pdf) in the current issue of UCLA Law Review. Here’s the abstract: The nature and scope of new government electronic surveillance programs in the aftermath of September 11 have presented acute constitutional questions about executive authority, the Fourth Amendment, and the separation of powers. But…