Articles Posted in Uncategorized

Haven’t noted something on technology for a while, so here is a piece by the American Constitution Society (the antithesis of the Federalist Society).

Susan Freiwald, Phone Tracking Should Require a Warrant. 

A pending case in the 3^rd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals raises a profound question — should the government be able to track your location without a warrant? Not so long ago, few of us carried cell phones. Today, the vast majority of Americans does. At stake are the rules for tracking the location of cell phones and their owners.

For more than five years, the ACLU and other advocacy organizations have been seeking the release of Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) memos that supplied the basis for the Bush administration’s interrogation, detention, rendition, and warrantless surveillance policies.

So here they are from the ACLU blog.

Concurring Opinions blog is discussing speculation that we will soon hear a retirement announcement from Justice Souter.  So,

This means that breathless speculation about a successor can begin.

According to the Honolulu Star Bulletin:

Question: It has been almost three years since 1st Lt. Ehren Watada refused to join his Stryker Brigade Combat Team when it deployed to Iraq from Fort Lewis, Wash. What is his status?

Answer: The Army says it is still awaiting a decision from newly appointed U.S. Solicitor Elena Kagan, who was sworn in three weeks ago, as to whether it will appeal a federal judge’s decision rendered in October.

Here is a link to an event at Washington College of Law, sponsored by NIMJ.

Public Trials?  Lifting the Veil on Military Courts-Martial.

Date:
04/14/09

Slightly off message, but in light of the attention given to collateral consequences of a court-martial conviction and my earlier comment about impact on clearances, perhaps there is no impact.
Del Quinten Wilber, Security-Clearance Checks Eyed, Washington Post, 9 April 2009.

No.

v. Calvin J. WHEELER  Jr. 

The Supreme Court issued a decision today in Corley v. United States.

The SCOTUSWiki documentation.

The decision in Corley.

1 April 2009:

No. 09-5001/MC.  United States, Appellant v. Matthew T. BURK, Appellee.  CCA 200800146.  On March 4, 2009, the United States filed a motion for enlargement of time in which to file a certificate of review in the above-captioned case.  The Court granted that motion to March 30, 2009 (Daily Journal, March 10, 2009).  On March 31, 2009, the United States filed a notice of intent not to certify this case to the Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces.  In view of this notice, it is, ordered that the above captioned case is hereby removed from the Court’s docket.

Here is the CAAFLog discussion of Burk.

Here’s a short article on two cases pending at the Supreme Court, Montejo v. Louisiana and Kansas v. Ventris.

Bidish J. Sarma, Robert J. Smith, & G. Ben Cohen, Interrogations and the Guiding Hand of Counsel: Montejo, Ventris, and the Sixth Amendment's Continued Vitality, Northwestern L. Rev. Colloquy, 3 April 2009.