statism

Justin Raimondo: Police-State ‘Progressivism’

"Verizon and other carriers are forbidden by law from revealing the court order. A secret court, such as the FISA court – under which this order was issued – isn’t really a court in the Western sense: it is a star chamber affair, a formality that rubber-stamps whatever our rulers desire at the moment. In what sense is the United States a 'free' country, let alone the leader of the 'Free World'? Sure, we have elections: so does Iran. Yes, we have a 'free' press, but what happens when sources are afraid of talking to reporters? With a massive database that may even be tracking our location, America’s political class is making itself invulnerable to any challenge." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJustin Raimondo: Police-State ‘Progressivism’

US government invokes special privilege to stop scrutiny of data mining

"The Obama administration is invoking an obscure legal privilege to avoid judicial scrutiny of its secret collection of the communications of potentially millions of Americans. Civil liberties lawyers trying to hold the administration to account through the courts for its surveillance of phone calls and emails of American citizens have been repeatedly stymied by the government's recourse to the 'military and state secrets privilege'. The precedent, rarely used but devastating in its legal impact, allows the government to claim that it cannot be submitted to judicial oversight because to do so it would have to compromise national security." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingUS government invokes special privilege to stop scrutiny of data mining

Judge Napolitano On NSA Spying: Most Extraordinarily Broad Search Warrant Ever Issued In US History

"Judge Andrew Napolitano called the situation 'a fishing expedition on the grandest scale we've ever seen in American history.' The government is looking for a select group of people, and instead of obeying the Constitution and simply getting a search warrant for their phones, the judge says, 'They got a search warrant for a 113 million phones!'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJudge Napolitano On NSA Spying: Most Extraordinarily Broad Search Warrant Ever Issued In US History

Hacker Who Exposed Steubenville Rape Case Could Spend More Time Behind Bars Than The Rapists

"The case gained national attention after the 'hacktivist' group Anonymous leaked significant social media evidence implicating the assailants — including tweets, Instagram photos, and a 12-minute video of Steubenville high schoolers joking about the rape. But it turns out that working to expose those rapists may land one Anonymous hacker more time in prison than the rapists themselves will serve. As Mother Jones reports, 26-year-old Deric Lostutter — who has been known as 'KYAnonymous' throughout his role in the Steubenville rape case — could face up to 10 years of jail time if he’s convicted of hacking-related crimes. The FBI raided Losuetter’s home in April." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHacker Who Exposed Steubenville Rape Case Could Spend More Time Behind Bars Than The Rapists

How Our Right To Travel Became a Bureaucratic Ordeal

"Last week, my vacationing family was stopped at not one, but two, internal checkpoints along Interstate 8 in Arizona and California and questioned about our citizenship. As recently as eight years ago, I drove to and from a house rental in Puerto Peñasco, Mexico, with no identification beyond my driver's license. Since 2009, though, a passport or similar document has been required to cross back into the United States from anywhere. Nominally an internationally recognized right, travel of all sorts has become creepingly bureaucratized in recent decades to an extent that has completely transformed the act of going from one place to another." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingHow Our Right To Travel Became a Bureaucratic Ordeal

Collection of phone records stirs debate: Valuable tool or ‘beyond Orwellian’?

"Sen. Dianne Feinstein, chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the program helped to disrupt 'terrorist plots' on U.S. soil. 'It is lawful,' the California Democrat insisted. 'It has been briefed by Congress.' Reps. Mike Rogers and Dutch Ruppersberger, the two top Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee, both stressed that 'this important collection tool does not allow the government to eavesdrop' and that it is routinely reviewed by Congress. White House spokesman Josh Earnest further stressed the importance of ensuring 'we have the tools we need to confront the threat posted by terrorists (and to) protect the homeland.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingCollection of phone records stirs debate: Valuable tool or ‘beyond Orwellian’?

Jury Nullification Advocate Out Of Jail, Files Federal Lawsuit Against Judge

"Mark Schmidter is a free man after spending 104 days in the Orange County Jail. He was convicted late last year of indirect criminal contempt by Chief Judge Belvin Perry for handing out flyers at the Orange County Courthouse in the months leading up to and during the Casey Anthony trial. He says his fight over free speech is not over. Those flyers explained the right of jurors to nullify convictions if they thought the law was wrong, even if a defendant had committed the crime. Schmidter says he will jump right back into the fray now that he has served his time." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingJury Nullification Advocate Out Of Jail, Files Federal Lawsuit Against Judge

Rand Paul Will Introduce Fourth Amendment Restoration Act Of 2013

'The revelation that the NSA has secretly seized the call records of millions of Americans, without probable cause, represents an outrageous abuse of power and a violation of the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. I have long argued that Congress must do more to restrict the Executive’s expansive law enforcement powers to seize private records of law-abiding Americans that are held by a third-party,' Sen. Paul said. 'The bill restores our Constitutional rights and declares that the Fourth Amendment shall not be construed to allow any agency of the United States government to search the phone records of Americans without a warrant based on probable cause.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingRand Paul Will Introduce Fourth Amendment Restoration Act Of 2013

Glenn Greenwald: On whistleblowers and government threats of investigation

"They could easily enrich themselves by selling those documents for huge sums of money to foreign intelligence services. They could seek to harm the US government by acting at the direction of a foreign adversary and covertly pass those secrets to them. They could gratuitously expose the identity of covert agents. None of the whistleblowers persecuted by the Obama administration as part of its unprecedented attack on whistleblowers has done any of that: not one of them. They undertook great personal risk and sacrifice for one overarching reason: to make their fellow citizens aware of what their government is doing in the dark." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingGlenn Greenwald: On whistleblowers and government threats of investigation

11 Year-Old Boy Suspended From School Because He Said ‘Gun’

"In a radio interview, Bruce Henkelman, the boy's father, claimed that a school bus driver overheard the boy use the word 'gun' and then took him to the principal. The boy was then questioned by both the principal and a Sherriff's deputy. Henkelman said that the school's principal, Darrel Prioleau, told him that '[W]ith what happened at Sandy Hook, if you say the word 'gun' in my school, you are going to get suspended for 10 days.' In a Monday interview with Washington, DC-based radio station WMAL, Henkelman claimed that the young boy was telling fellow students how he would have stopped the Sandy Hook shooting if he had been there with a firearm." Continue reading →

Continue Reading11 Year-Old Boy Suspended From School Because He Said ‘Gun’