Miranda rights are too easily revoked
Law enforcement can waive a suspect’s Miranda rights when it’s a matter of public safety, says Emily Bazelon in Slate, but in “exceptional cases” agents can extend their interrogation to gather...
View ArticleFreedom and safety require some balance
The government’s role is to balance personal freedom against “other important rights,” says Michael Grunwald in Time. That includes, he writes, “the right of a child to watch a marathon or attend first...
View ArticleNo right can ever be absolute
From limiting free speech to allowing search and seizure, all amendments have their restrictions, says Michael Tomasky in the Daily Beast. The Second Amendment, which has the least, may need more as...
View ArticleWhy terror suspects deserve due process
In our zeal to prosecute accused terrorists, we risk treating the innocent like enemy combatants — as demonstrated by the case of Paul Kevin Curtis. He’s the Elvis impersonator who was accused of...
View ArticlePhone scandal reveals abuse of power
By sending its subpoenas for the telephone records of Associated Press staff directly to the phone companies rather than to the AP, the Justice Department prevented the news organization from seeking a...
View ArticleA chance for real change
Our opinion: Washington has a prime opportunity in the IRS and AP controversies to tackle concerns shared on the right, left, and center. Spying on journalists? Targeting by the Internal Revenue...
View ArticleA matter of due process
Our opinion: The rising use of asset forfeiture by the government threatens fundamental rights and the basics of justice. Congress needs to look at this. Imagine you’re pulled over for supposedly...
View ArticleDNA decision allows search minus warrant
“All 50 states collect DNA from people who have been convicted of crimes,” says Emily Bazelon in Slate. But the Supreme Court’s decision to allow Maryland to collect DNA “from people who have been...
View ArticleGovernment oversnoop
Our opinion: Can public workers be subject to warrantless tracking in their private time? The real question is how much privacy can be chipped way before there’s none left. Imagine, if you will, this...
View ArticleLiberty too expensive a price for security
Our Founding Fathers believed liberty was “an imperative,” and its price was “discomfort, danger, and even, to borrow from Patrick Henry, death,” says Charles Cooke in the National Review. For...
View ArticleA new civil rights era
Our opinion: The gutting of the Voting Rights Act should be cause to action, not resignation. Whether they’re U.S. Supreme Court justices or ordinary citizens, Americans who believe this nation’s...
View ArticleWrong way to fight crime
Our opinion: A federal judge rules that “stop-and-frisk,” New York City-style, is unconstitutional. And the attorney general says harsh federal drug crime sentences don’t work, either. It’s time for...
View ArticleBeyond stop-and-frisk
Stop-and-frisk searches do more harm than good, I. Bennett Capers says in The New York Times. The large number of minorities targeted by police and increased incidents of violence cause the public to...
View ArticleCourt cases could shift constitutional law to right
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy may be the decisive vote on cases addressing campaign finance overhaul, abortion and separation of church and state, and “if “conservative justices hold sway,...
View ArticleCompanies don’t qualify for religious rights
“Secular for-profit corporations” shouldn’t qualify for religious exemption to forgo their legal obligation to provide contraceptive health care coverage for employees, says David Gans of the...
View ArticleNSA exposes its own hypocrisy
Denying that it would “violate someone’s privacy to paint an American citizen as a disgusting sideshow,” the NSA contradicted itself on “60 Minutes” by referencing unflattering material it had gathered...
View ArticleRuling on NSA affirms government misconduct
Judge Richard Leon’s ruling against the National Security Agency exposes “the delusion that bulk metadata collection is a practice that will only traipse on bad people,” and underscores the need for...
View ArticleThe right to choose doesn’t trump the right to protest
Buffer zones around abortion clinics are unconstitutional, says Wendy Kaminer‘ in The Atlantic. A woman’s right to obtain reproductive health services, including abortions, “doesn’t diminish her...
View ArticleEven security has limits
Our opinion: The president left much still to be discussed in America’s debate on the limits of government gathering of citizens’ data. President Barack Obama’s acknowledgement that the government’s...
View ArticleNo price on civil liberties
Our opinion: Public officials anywhere who are tempted to repeat New York City’s mass arrests of protesters should consider the true cost. There are two ways to look at the $18 million that New York...
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