The First Amendment grants a speaker many rights, like the right to speak and the right not to speak. What most people don’t realize is that the First Amendment also grants a listener similar rights; it grants listeners both the right to listen, and the right not to listen. In October of 2018, the IPAWS emergency alert system ran its first nationwide test utilizing presidential alerts. What went largely overlooked about the new presidential alerts was the unchecked expansion of power and reach that the alert system grants the sitting president. The new nationwide emergency alert system violates a person’s right not to listen, and more specifically, their right against government compelled listening.
The Little-Known Business Case to Extend DACA
Although undocumented immigrants are often regarded as the sole victims of the uncertainty of U.S. immigration law reform, corporations have also been adversely affected. One of the focal points of this conflict over immigration is the presidential directive, DACA (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals). DACA is a discretionary grant of stay and work authorization by the federal government to undocumented immigrants, who were brought to the United States illegally as children. Signed into law as an executive order by President Obama, DACA has now been in place for the past seven years. Although there has been a growing sentiment across the United States to revoke DACA, many corporations actually favor continuing the program. Despite the lack of media attention to the corporate proponents, a coalition of some of the largest corporations in the United States has formed to lobby for the continued success and improvement of the program.
Searching the Virtual Glove Compartment: Police Searches of Connected Cars
You have just been pulled over by the police. After you hand the officer your license and registration, the officer notices your baseball cap with a picture of a marihuana leaf. The officer asks if you have been smoking marihuana, and you quickly answer “no.” Nonetheless, the officer places you in handcuffs and searches inside your vehicle. The officer finds no marihuana, so she uses your car’s touchscreen display to access your text messages and call history. The officer finds the following text-message exchange between you and a contact named “Rott”:
- How much did u put in the trunk?
- 850g, you’ll be good for a while
- Got it, thanks
Law Enforcement Requires the Ability to Access Passcode-Protected Smartphones; One Day, Your Safety May Depend On It Too
The intersection between an individual’s right to privacy and the need for law enforcement to access encrypted data caught national spotlight on December 2, 2015, when a group of co-workers gathered for training at the Inland Regional Center in San Bernardino, California. Suddenly, a door swung open, and a single masked person wearing all black, and carrying a firearm stepped inside the room. Without a word, he began opening fire. Pandemonium ensued. A second shooter joined the attack, and together they fired over 100 rounds before fleeing in a black SUV, leaving 14 people dead and 22 people injured.
Former Incarcerated Youth: The Unknown Collaterals of The School to Prison Pipeline
You are on your computer and you decide to click on a video that it seems all your social media friends have continuously shared. You press play and on your screen you see a little girl sitting in her chair with a police officer standing nearby. Suddenly, the police officer yanks the girl’s arm and in a struggle flips her and the chair over. The girl is subsequently dragged by her hair and arrested. The little girl is African-American. This happens during class, in front of all the other students and the teacher.
Videos like the one described above have bought great attention to the phenomenon labeled as the “school-to-prison pipeline”.