Constitution

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – Comedians, bloggers, and pundits are ecstatic about The Donald throwing his toupee in the ring for the Republican nomination. The stories write themselves. But the Republican Party establishment is appalled, because Trump will create an image for the party that will hurt it in the general […]

Barack Obama

Implications for ICC? SCOTUS Jerusalem Decision shows Limits of Israel Lobbies

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – – It has been the position of the US presidents for decades that the status of Jerusalem in international law is unsettled. That is why the US embassy is in Tel Aviv, and why US passports showing the place of birth as Jerusalem just list the name […]

Fighting for Privacy, Two Years After Snowden

By Richard Esguerra | (Electronic Frontier Foundation) | – – Two years ago today, Glenn Greenwald published in the Guardian a single document confirming a key piece of the NSA’s surveillance program, a document that fundamentally transformed EFF’s long-running battle for an end to unchecked government surveillance. To recap briefly, the document was a secret […]

Thank you, Edward Snowden: An End to General Warrants as so-called PATRIOT Act expires

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) – The US government behemoth dedicated to spying on us all in contravention of the Constitution will likely be only slightly inconvenienced by the expiration of the misnamed “PATRIOT Act”, forced by Sen. Rand Paul late Sunday night. But at least a few baby steps back toward democracy will […]

Why Rand Paul is right to Kill the So-Called PATRIOT Act: It was never about Terrorism

By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) | – Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has vowed to force the expiration of the so-called PATRIOT Act on Sunday. Paul is right that it is unconstitutional and in this regard he is a better constitutional scholar than Barack Obama, whose stance on this issue is, to say the least, […]

Why the so-called USA PATRIOT Act can’t actually Keep America Safe

by CHARLES KURZMAN for ISLAMiCommentary: Charles Kurzman With the “USA PATRIOT Act” set to expire at the end of the month, you might expect supporters of domestic surveillance to tout the take-down of the biggest plot of violent extremism America has experienced so far this year. Not the plot by two men who drove to […]

Snowden’s Revenge: USA “Freedom” [Surveillance] Act Fails in Senate

By Nadia Prupis, staff writer | (Commondreams.org) — “The failure of these bills to pass shows just how dramatically the politics of surveillance changed once the extent of the government’s surveillance programs became known to the public.” In a move that is being hailed by civil liberties advocates as a victory for privacy rights, the […]

Obama Prosecutes another Whistleblower to Senate for “Espionage”