The Michigan Supreme Court has permitted lower courts to use “reasonable control” over the appearance of those who arrive in court, effectively allowing judges to ban certain religious clothing. In an order [text, PDF] issued Tuesday, the court amended the Michigan Rules of Evidence [text, PDF], motivated by the 2006 case of Ginnah Muhammad. Muhammad…
And then there were 6
The Associated Press reports that a sixth former State Department employee has pleaded guilty to snooping celebrity passports. Karal Busch admitted that she looked at the passport applications of more than 64 people out of curiosity. Earlier this week Kevin M. Young also pleaded guilty to unauthorized access.
New fast-track P2P clampdown proposals announced
According to the Guardian and reports this morning, Government officials today have announced that they intend to put in place a strong clamp down on illicit file sharing to ‘support’ record and film industries they wrongly believe are threatened. This is the wrong moment to go in this direction. Online music revenues are going up,…
ACLU seeks records about laptop searches at the border
The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit today demanding records about the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)’s policy of searching travelers’ laptops without suspicion of wrongdoing. The lawsuit was filed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to learn how CBP’s policy, issued last year, has impacted the civil liberties of travelers during…