Articles Posted in Government

Nunes Memo Declassified Updated: by

Today, President Trump declassified a memorandum dated January 18, 2018, from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence ("Nunes Memo"). This memo alleged abuses by the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation while seeking a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) warrant to conduct electronic surveillance of Carter…

EME Homer and the Problem with the U.S. Supreme Court’s Electronic Publishing Updated: by

By now, you’ve all read that Justice Antonin Scalia made a series of mistakes in the dissenting opinion of EPA v. EME Homer City Generation, L.P. The Supreme Court issued a corrected version of the opinion on its website. For more on the story, read the coverage in the WSJ…

Oklahoma – It’s “Official” Updated: by

HT to Professor Peter Martin who posts in his blog, Citing Legally, the news that, as of January 1, 2014, “sixty years after the Oklahoma Supreme Court designated the West Publishing Company as the ‘official publisher’ of its decisions, it [has] revoked that designation.”  Going forward, the electronic versions of…

New Best Practices for Open Government Data Updated: by

Josh Tauberer recently announced the release of “Open Government Data: Best Practices Language for Making Data ‘License Free.’ That document sets forth recommendations for federal agencies issuing data, and sample Creative Commons Zero (public domain) licensing statements.

FDSys Opinion Coverage Increases, But Is Still Lacking Updated: by

The Administrative Office of the Courts announced yesterday that FDSys will now include opinions from 64 federal courts.  The program to integrate federal court opinions into FDSys began in 2011.  In 2011, they added opinions from 12 courts. In 2012, they increased that number to 28 courts.  In February…

Health FSAs. Now with Rollover Dollars. Updated: by

Fall has finally arrived in sunny California. For weeks, we have witnessed the shortening rays of the sun's glorious light. Now, as the leaves explode in color to red, orange and yellow hues, we know that the holiday season is but a few weeks away. For some, the holiday season…

Illinois Eavesdropping Law Blocked; It “Likely Violates First Amendment,” Federal Appeals Court Rules Updated: by

A 1961 Illinois eavesdropping law "likely violates the First Amendment's free speech-speech and free-press guarantees," a federal appeals court ruled. The 69-page decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit blocks enforcement of an Illinois criminal law that made it a felony to make audio recordings of…

Feds Had Inside Hacker Help from ‘Sabu’ to Charge Alleged Anonymous, LulzSec Members Updated: by

According to court documents (see below), the FBI and federal prosecutors got help from hacker Hector Xavier Monsegur a/k/a 'Sabu' a/k/a 'Xavier DeLeon' a/k/a 'Leon' to build cases against other alleged members of Anonymous, LulzSec, Internet Feds, and AntiSec hacker groups. U.S. authorities charged five accused hackers with federal criminal…