"Technology may make surveillance more convenient, but it does not make the Fourth Amendment's protections any less important."
uncertain
protections → make → ?
So said IJ legislative counsel Alasdair Whitney this week at a congressional hearing on Flock and other automated license plate readers.
asserted
Whitney → say → Flock
New on the Short Circuit podcast: We welcome on Robert Steinbuch, a professor at the University of Arkansas, to tell a tragic story of the upside-down world of federal remedies.
asserted
We → welcome → remedies
- After Anthropic refused to relax contractual prohibitions on the use of Claude for lethal autonomous warfare or domestic surveillance, the DoD deemed it a supply-chain risk and prohibited any of its contractors from using it.
asserted
it → refuse → it
Dissent: Clearly not what Congress meant.
asserted
Congress → mean → ?
-
In 2015, when Somerville, Mass. detective asks an informant to help locate a burglary suspect, the informant threatens to hurt the suspect (over an unrelated personal beef)—and then does, grievously, with a machete.
asserted
informant → ask → machete
We'd like to fire the detective for lack of candor about his role.
asserted
We → like → role
Detective (in a separate suit): Other officers have done worse and weren't fired; the city is retaliating against me.
asserted
city → do → me
- Some of a district court's ruling against DHS evaporates in a cloud of Article III standing in this First Circuit opinion.
asserted
Some → evaporate → opinion
However, requirements for adequate notice regarding third-country removals of noncitizens remain.
asserted
requirements → regard → noncitizens
Less noticeable is the use in footnote 2 of the word "refoulment" (in the context of "chain refoulment"), which means "forcing a refugee or asylum seeker to return to a country or territory where they are likely to face persecution."
asserted
they → mean → persecution
Originally a French term, it was not listed in the original OED and, unlike many of its Law French friends, seems to have only migrated into English (along with human rights law) after WWII.
asserted
it → list → WWII
Maryland appeals court (2016): It was unconstitutional for Baltimore police to use a cell-site simulator without a warrant to locate this shooting suspect.
asserted
police → use → suspect
It was unconstitutional, and we have concerns about law enforcement relying on private nondisclosure agreements "as an excuse to conceal or obfuscate important information when seeking a search warrant."
asserted
enforcement → have → warrant
But qualified immunity, state-law "public official" immunity, and municipal immunity doom his claims for damages for the nearly two years spent in pretrial detention.
uncertain
immunity → doom → detention
- It's beyond debate that officers cannot pull someone over without reasonable suspicion and then invent a bogus reason for the stop afterwards, says the Fifth Circuit (per curiam, unpublished).
asserted
Circuit → pull → stop
So this case about Alexandria, La. officers who said a motorist failed to signal despite dashcam footage showing otherwise (and who then unlawfully prolonged the stop) will proceed past the pleading stages (nearly four years and over 200 docket entries after it was filed).
asserted
it → say → stages
- With many other gun laws not faring so well, it's surprising that the ban on selling guns across state lines (except for gun-industry licensed professionals) has survived.
asserted
ban → fare → professionals
If you only plan to skim, might we suggest skipping to page 11, which provides a long list of old-timey gun laws, including one related to "Bacon's Rebellion."
uncertain
which → plan → Rebellion
- Sixth Circuit (over a dissent): A Tennessee law that prohibits sharing truthful information with minors about how to obtain an abortion out-of-state is a content-based restriction on speech, and the state didn't even try to argue it satisfies strict scrutiny.
asserted
it → prohibit → scrutiny
Enforcement enjoined.
asserted
Enforcement → enjoin → ?
- Indiana man gets life for gun and drug crimes, but wait!
asserted
man → get → crimes
His sentence was enhanced because of some threatening text messages (that the jury didn't see) discovered by dint of a warrantless forensic examination of his phone.
asserted
jury → enhance → phone
It's not clearly established that if the examining officer is told there's a warrant, and there isn't, that that's an unconstitutional search.
asserted
that → establish → ?
- Honestly, kudos to this guy who told the Ninth Circuit that using a stolen identity for over 30 years should constitute "adverse possession" rather than identity theft.
asserted
using → tell → theft
The case comes out the way you'd expect, but still: Way to go down swinging—or, y'know, identity-thieving.
-
asserted
you → come → ?
Idaho declared 40 years ago that the time had come to adjudicate water rights in the Snake River Basin.
asserted
time → declare → Basin
State courts decreed more than 158,600 water rights over the ensuing 27 years, including claims filed by private landowners, the U.S. gov't, and ranchers whose livestock graze on federal lands.
uncertain
livestock → decree → lands
In 2017, three years after the last water right was decreed under this system, Idaho changed its laws about stockwater rights (the right to use water for livestock), from how people could challenge them as forfeited to limiting the feds' ability to acquire such rights.
uncertain
people → decree → rights
After wading through a procedural morass, the Ninth Circuit concludes the new laws violate the Supremacy Clause.
asserted
laws → wad → Clause
- Like many states, Hawai'i requires firearm purchasers to obtain a permit before they can buy a gun.
asserted
they → require → gun
Unique among states, Hawai'i's permits become void after 30 days, and purchasers must bring some of their firearms to a police station for inspection.
asserted
purchasers → become → inspection
There's a footnote in Bruen that creates a safe-harbor for this sort of thing.
asserted
that → be → thing
Dissent (VanDyke, J.): "[I]f our court's takeaway from Bruen is that Bruen changed the law to make it harder to mount a successful Second Amendment challenge, then somebody has seriously lost the plot."
asserted
somebody → change → plot
- The Supreme Court has said that if an asylum applicant entered the country illegally but was apprehended a mere "25 yards" inside the border, that's basically at the "threshold of initial entry" and not far enough to gain any constitutional due process rights.
asserted
that → say → rights
And by "25 yards," the Court meant anywhere in the country.
asserted
Court → mean → country
- "For much of the 150-plus-year history of school yearbooks," recounts the Ninth Circuit, "the embarrassing photographs and cringeworthy anecdotes featured in these annual volumes languished in obscurity, tucked away in basements and closets across the country."
asserted
photographs → recount → country
In our modern era, Classmates.com now publicizes hundreds of thousands of yearbooks online.
asserted
Classmates.com → publicize → yearbooks
And, the Ninth Circuit holds, a district court properly certified classes to seek monetary and injunctive relief against the website's creator for violating California's right-of-publicity statute.
asserted
court → hold → statute
- On cross-country flight, man, an Egyptian immigrant, won't stay in his seat, repeatedly goes to different bathrooms, stares fixedly at other passengers, and snaps a photo of flight attendants.
asserted
man → stay → attendants
…and 13 more, not listed.
The Aporia
