Surveillance in Post-9/11 America
Passed amid the climate of fear and uncertainty that followed the 9/11 attacks, the Patriot Act fundamentally altered the relationship Americans have with the government. The bill’s passage opened the door to continued efforts to broaden suspi...
Categories: FBI, Patriot Act, surveillance Tags:
ACLU Lens: Court Rules Challenge to Warrantless Wiretapping Law Can Proceed
In a very significant development, yesterday a federal appeals court ruled that our lawsuit challenging warrantless wiretapping can proceed. The law that we’re challenging, the FISA Amendments Act (FAA) of 2008, is the most far-reaching surv...
Categories: faa, fisa, surveillance, warrantless wiretapping Tags:
The Government Might Know You’re Reading This
"If you're not doing anything wrong, you have nothing to worry about." Many Americans have said this, or heard it, when discussing the expanded surveillance capabilities the government has claimed since 9/11. But it turns out you should...
Categories: 9-11 blog series, National Security Letters, nsl, Patriot Act, Ron Wyden, spying, surveillance Tags:
Your Privacy Rights, Before Congress Now and the Supreme Court in November
In June, we told you the Supreme Court agreed to hear United States v. Jones, a case that will determine if the government may plant GPS devices on vehicles to track people without a warrant. The government has appealed the D.C. appellate court's ...
Categories: due process, GPS, location tracking, surveillance, U.S. Supreme Court, warrantless tracking Tags:
The Government’s 9/11 Secrecy Obsession
Our government lost its way after 9/11 in many different respects. One of them was to worsen what had already been long apparent as one of the most significant problems with our security establishment: its out-of-control habit of secrecy. The secr...
Categories: 9-11 blog series, Secrecy, surveillance Tags:
Everyday Shoppers Reported as "Suspicious" in Counterterrorism Databases
Yesterday NPR and the Center for Investigative Reporting released the results of an investigation into "suspicious activity" reports (SAR) at the Mall of America in Minnesota. What they found was that the private "counterterrorism&quo...
Categories: FBI, fusion centers, spyfiles, spying, surveillance, suspicious activity reporting Tags:
Tenth Anniversary of Worldwide War; A Time to Reassess Who We Are
While the country focuses on the upcoming tenth anniversary of 9/11, there is another tenth anniversary that is coming up next week that triggered sweeping changes around the world. Just a few days after 9/11, Congress passed the Authorization for U...
Categories: 9-11 blog series, AUMF, detention, discrimination, guantanamo, muslim, racial profiling, spying, surveillance, terrorism, Torture, warrantless wiretapping Tags:
The Legacy of 9/11: Endless War Without Oversight
Almost ten years after 9/11, in May of this year, a majority of the US House of Representatives voted to give President Obama — and all future presidents — more war authority than Congress gave to President Bush two days after the 9/11 atta...
Categories: 9-11 blog series, detention, discrimination, guantanamo, muslim, racial profiling, spying, surveillance, terrorism, Torture, warrantless wiretapping Tags:
Ten Years Later
On September 4, 2001, my first official day on the job at the ACLU, our agenda was already full as we embarked on a new decade of defending civil liberties. Just one week later, our nation’s future—and the ACLU’s — was fundam...
Categories: 9/11 blog series, detention, discrimination, guantanamo, muslim, racial profiling, spying, surveillance, terrorism, Torture, warrantless wiretapping Tags:
Ten Years Later
On September 4, 2001, my first official day on the job at the ACLU, our agenda was already full as we embarked on a new decade of defending civil liberties. Just one week later, our nation’s future—and the ACLU’s — was fundam...
Categories: 9/11 blog series, detention, discrimination, guantanamo, muslim, racial profiling, spying, surveillance, terrorism, Torture, warrantless wiretapping Tags: