newswire - page 53

In a narrow vote on Wednesday, the upper chamber rejected a measure that would have allowed federal authorities to obtain online metadata using specialized national security state subpoenas. The amendment was introduced by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) to a Justice Department appropriations bill. Though it was supported by a bipartisan group of 58 senators,  it failed to attain the sixty votes it needed to advance. Heavily lobbied for by the FBI, the measure would have allowed the bureau to use National Security Letters (NSL) to…

Keep Reading

The House of Representatives passed a bill that would make it more difficult for executive agencies to thwart internal investigations. Legislation bolstering subpoena power for the federal governments’ inspectors general was approved by the House. It passed Tuesday in a voice vote with rules under suspension, meaning it required two-thirds majority for approval without amendment. The maneuver came roughly ten months after a top Justice Department lawyer issued a memo justifying the stonewalling of IGs. “Inspectors General are at the heart of keeping the federal…

Keep Reading

The President and his top lawyer are in disagreement over a proposal to tweak US criminal procedure to facilitate the closure of the military prison camp at Guantanamo Bay. Attorney General Loretta Lynch has twice objected to attempts by the White House to allow Gitmo detainees to plead guilty in US courts via video conference, according to a Reuters report on Tuesday. President Obama ultimately decided not to overrule the Justice Department. Current law prohibits the 80 detainees remaining at the prison to step foot within the…

Keep Reading

A policy rider that would expand the type of information the FBI can collect without a warrant has attached itself to legislation for the third time in less than a month. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) introduced the measure on Monday night as an amendment to the Commerce and Justice Departments’ spending bill, which the upper chamber is considering this week. If enacted, federal authorities would be able to use so-called National Security Letters (NSL) to collect internet browsing history, IP addresses and other sensitive…

Keep Reading

The transcript of a 911 call between the Orlando shooter and authorities during last week’s massacre was released on Monday by the Department of Justice, with significant details omitted. The record of the approximately 50-second exchange includes Omar Mateen admitting to the rampage, telling a dispatcher over the phone, “I did the shooting.” The portion of the conversation in which Mateen pledges allegiance to a foreign terrorist organization, however, was redacted by the Justice Department. Reacting to the release, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan…

Keep Reading

Supreme Court Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg excoriated colleagues on Monday, charging the court with undermining Constitutional safeguards against police abuses. Justices had that day ruled 5-3 to reverse a Utah Supreme Court decision to suppress evidence collected by a narcotics detective. Elena Kagan was the other Justice to dissent. The officer in the case had detained a suspect without reasonable suspicion, discovered the man had a warrant for a traffic violation, then placed him under arrest and discovered he was possessing methamphetamine.…

Keep Reading

Upending regular order, Democrats and a few Republicans held the Senate floor for more than 15-hours on Wednesday and early Thursday morning to highlight the need for gun control measures in the wake of the recent mass shooting in Orlando. Led by Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), the maneuver could, however,  yield troubling outcomes for those concerned about the increasing size of the national security state and its infringement on civil liberties–those with implications beyond “the right to keep and bear arms.” Just after 2 A.M. on…

Keep Reading