A new report using state and federal data identifies Massachusetts and North Dakota as the two states with “the worst civil forfeiture laws in the country.” The legal bar the state must meet to seize property and assets is very low in Massachusetts, and does not...
The Sunlight Foundation has ranked Massachusetts among the worst states in the nation on government transparency. Journalist Joshua Eaton’s recent correspondence with the Boston Police Department shows just how absurd that secrecy looks on the ground. In June 2014, fellow Boston-based muckraker Evan...
If you’ve got nothing to hide, why worry about warrantless mass surveillance? One reason among many: The people who have access to your private communications may not have your—or your child’s—best interest at heart. NextGov reports that officials at a recent Intelligence and National...
What do you get when you add up the following? Lack of racial diversity among police intelligence employees. Failure to train police intelligence employees on federal and state law. Ignorance of Black cultural iconography. Fear of (Black) dissent. Inadequate oversight at police...
In his first public comments on the US drone campaign in Pakistan, President Obama described it as “a targeted, focused effort at people who are on a list of active terrorists who are trying to go in and harm Americans, hit American...
Far-right extremists (FRE) killed 245 people in the United States between the years 1990 and 2014, while ideological extremists affiliated with al-Qaida or associated movements (AQAM) killed 62 people in the country during the same time period. The figures, which exclude both...
The New York Times has filed suit against the Department of Homeland Security over access to department assessments of DHS-funded “fusion centers” written between 2009 and 2014. The centers—created by DHS after 9/11 in an attempt to facilitate information sharing about terrorism...
As the battle over digital security heats up, with the FBI and law enforcement on one side and security experts and even intelligence officials on the other, it’s more important than ever to shine a light on the government’s efforts to defeat...
Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, where he has special access to classified information about United States intelligence operations. As I’ve written about before, Senator Wyden has repeatedly used that special access to warn the American people about gaps between...
The ACLU has filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Department of Justice, seeking information about the department’s efforts to compel technology companies to provide access to encrypted messages. The request was filed on April 5, 2016, the very same...