Surveillance reform: President Obama this morning will deliver a speech at the U.S. Department of Justice that outlines reform of government surveillance efforts. Obama is expected to announce an overhaul of the controversial National Security Agency bulk phone data collection program. Sens. Richard Blumenthal, Ron Wyden and Mark Udall wrote an op-ed for POLITICO trumpeting the push to reform the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.
Voting rights: Federal lawmakers Thursday unveiled their effort to fix the Voting Rights Act following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that gutted a key provision, The National Law Journal reports. Coverage in NPR here, and USA Today here.
Cell phone searches: The U.S. Supreme Court today could announce whether the justices will review the scope of Fourth Amendment protection concerning police searches of cell phones. The Associated Press reports: "The Supreme Court decided 40 years ago that police don't need a search warrant to look through anything a person is carrying when arrested. But that was long before smartphones gave people the ability to take with them the equivalent of millions of pages of documents or thousands of photographs."
Paying up: The Salt Lake Tribune reports: "The Utah Attorney General’s Office has hired Gene C. Schaerr to lead a team of attorneys in the state’s defense of its constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage." Buzzfeed has this story: "D.C. Attorney To Leave High-Powered Law Firm To Defend Utah’s Marriage Ban." More coverage here.
Money back: "All federal judges — from Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. down to bankruptcy court judges — got five-figure raises because of a court ruling that erased pay freezes going back to 1995," The Washington Post reports.
Secret reserves: The New York Times' Dealbook has this story: "Banks Keep Their Mortgage Litigation Reserves a Secret."
Executed: "It wasn’t the terrifying, brutal death he inflicted on his 22-year-old victim in 1989, but Dennis McGuire did not go quietly yesterday," The Columbus Dispatch reported. McGuire "struggled, made guttural noises, gasped for air and choked for about 10 minutes before succumbing to a new, two-drug execution method."
Lights on: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has revived an inmate's suit over the 24-hour illumination of his cell. Read the ruling here.
Zzzzzzzzz: The New York Times reports: "Forbidden Zone for the Police: Places Ready-Made for a Nap." From the report: "Most of the nearly two dozen stay-away locations have little to do with temptations of the soul or spirits. Their prohibition has to do with the seduction of sleep."
Comments