Civil Liberties
Pentagon to Anthropic: If You Won't Let Us Use Your AI for Mass Surveillance or Autonomous Weapons, Expect Punishment
Pete Hegseth has threatened to invoke the Defense Production Act to force Anthropic to come around.
Can People in Frog Costumes Beat Fascism?
The "State of the Swamp" event highlights the power and limits of absurdity and whimsy in political protest.
Politicians Consider Soviet-Style Controls on 3D Printers
Panic over guns drives government officials to propose restricting popular technology.
Iowa Officials Arrested This Guy for Criticizing Them—Twice. A Federal Judge Says They Are Liable.
A mayor and a police chief "mistook their authority to maintain order for a license to suppress criticism," says U.S. District Judge Stephanie Rose.
Court Rules Chicago Is Liable for $163 Million in Overcharged Parking and Sticker Fines
A 2018 class action lawsuit argued that Chicago was unlawfully overcharging residents for parking and sticker fines.
ICE Whistleblower Says Training Is 'Deficient, Defective, and Broken'
An attorney and former ICE training instructor testified before Congress that changes to the training program “can and will get people killed.”
Trump Replaces Old Illegal Tariffs With New Illegal Tariffs
Plus: The U.S. could be going to war with Iran, the 2026 Winter Olympic Games, and why AI surveillance is worrying civil libertarians
The Government Wants Your Posts Before It Grants You Papers
The Trump administration will start collecting social media account information on immigration forms.
Oklahoma Ends Indefinite Death Row Solitary Confinement
“These men have not been able to touch grass and feel the warmth of the sun for the first time in ten years.”
Can You Trust Wikipedia?
Wikipedia shapes our perception of reality today more than ever before because it informs the large language models like ChatGPT. But can we really trust it?
Judge Orders Takeover of Arizona Prison Health Care Following Years of Barbaric Medical Neglect
A federal judge ruled in 2022 that "no legitimate humane system would operate" like Arizona's prison health care system. Three years later, that same judge found the problems still hadn't been fixed.
Iran Is Trying To Silence Dissent. Western Media Are Breaking Through Anyway.
Satellite broadcasting is a strategic counter to state censorship.
Trump Administration May Grant Asylum to Turkish National Who Burned a Quran in the U.K.
Like free speech in the U.K., the White House’s interest in this case shows that free speech is for some, but not for all.
Teacher's First Amendment Claim Related to Sharing "What Is Privilege?" Post Can Go Forward
"Superintendent Hamlet testified that Defendants viewed the Privilege Post as a criticism of the Black Lives Matter ... movement. He did not think such criticism was valid and believed criticism of BLM was enough in itself to justify punishing a teacher."
Was It a Coincidental Traffic Stop or AI-Powered Surveillance?
When former LSD kingpin Seth Ferranti was pulled over in Nebraska, police claimed a traffic violation.
Blaming Buildings for Sex Trafficking
And paving the way for increased surveillance of all women
Can Iran's Protest Movement Topple the Regime?
Exiled journalist Fardad Farahzad discusses how Iranians get uncensored news, the state of the protest movement, and whether the Islamic Republic is losing its grip on power.
Stephen Colbert Says CBS Killed an Interview Because of FCC Equal-Time Rule
If anything, the incident just provided further proof that the equal-time rule should be abolished.
Security Clearance Denied for Past Child Porn Downloading; Hearing Officer Unmoved by Claims That Behavior Stemmed from Since-Resolved Gender Dysphoria
"Applicant believed she was pre-adolescent or during adolescence when she was downloading images of children on her computer in 2013 to 2014 even though she was chronologically about 30 years old."
Carnegie Mellon Must Provide Discovery About Relationship with Qatar, in Ex-Student's Lawsuit Alleging Anti-Semitism
The student was explaining the concept of an eruv, a feature of certain Jewish neighborhoods, in class to an architecture professor, who allegedly said the time the student had spent on project "would have been better spent if [Ms. Canaan] had instead explored 'what Jews do to make themselves such a hated group.'" …
The Trump Administration's War Against ICE Critics
By conflating opposition with terrorism, federal officials go down a dangerous path.
Trump's Blatantly Unconstitutional Attempt To Punish His Congressional Critics Hits 2 Roadblocks
A grand jury and a federal judge rejected the president’s vendetta against legislators who produced a video about the duty to refuse unlawful military orders.
DHS Wants To Unmask Online Critics
Plus: The FCC targets Disney and Comcast, new Epstein associates revealed, and Trump’s tariffs cause growing rifts with U.S. allies.
Tom Homan Defends Masked ICE Agents by Claiming Threats Are Up 'Over 8,000 Percent'
Homan's numbers are misleading, but even if they weren't, it wouldn't justify allowing an entire federal law enforcement agency to operate in anonymity.
Florida Embraces New Urbanist Mega-Developments
Plus: Zohran Mamdani's rent rip-off hearings exclude public housing tenants, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu is a "yes" on rent control, and the intersection of zoning and qualified immunity.
The Olympics Will Never Achieve World Peace If It Keeps Clamping Down on Free Speech
Plus: Olympic hockey almost didn’t happen, how to pad the medal count, and a reader survey on fixing the Olympics
No Pseudonymity for Man Suing Harvard Alleging Jews Aim "to Exterminate or Enslave All Non-Jews"
The plaintiff claims he was denied admission to Harvard Business School, apparently because he is a "non-veteran, non-queer, non-Jewish White male applicant[]."
Report: The FBI Bent Its Own Rules To Spy on 1,100 'Sensitive' Targets
Opening investigations requires evidence, so the feds created “assessments.”
Trump's FTC Chairman Sends a Threatening Letter to Apple for Not Promoting Enough Conservative Media
Chairman Andrew Ferguson continues the Federal Trade Commission’s crusade against free speech with an official letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Mr. Wonderful v. BitBoy Crypto: Shark Tank's Kevin O'Leary Awarded $2.8M in Defamation Suit
Defendant has apparently "informed his psychiatrist ... that he believes he is dead and in a waiting room for Hell."
Ring Drops Controversial Partner After Super Bowl Ad Backlash
The move is a rare win for privacy, both for users and their neighbors.
