Trailblazing Email Privacy Bill Proposed in Texas
Mary Grinman – Edited by Natalie Kim

On May 27, 2013, the Texas State Senate and House signed H.B. 2268. The legislation requires state law enforcement agents to secure a warrant before accessing emails and other “electronic customer data.” H.B. 2268 at 3–4. It also permits warrants on out-of-state service providers that do business with a Texas resident in certain circumstances. Id. at 9. The bill closes the loophole of the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), which allows warrantless access to emails opened or older than 180 days.

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Supreme Court Holds that “Dog Sniffing” in Area Around the Home Constitutes a Fourth Amendment “Search”

Florida v. Jardines
By Mary Grinman – Edited by Geng Chen

In a 5–4 decision, the Supreme Court of the United States affirmed the Supreme Court of Florida, which had held that the use of a trained narcotics dog to inspect the area immediately surrounding Joelis Jardines’s home, including his porch, constituted a Fourth Amendment “search.”

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Department of Justice White Paper Reveals United States Position on Lethal Force Operations Targeting U.S. Citizens Abroad

By Mary Grinman – Edited by Laura Fishwick

On Monday, February 4, NBC made public an unsigned and undated Department of Justice (“DOJ”) White Paper, which concludes that the United States can lawfully use lethal force in a foreign country against a senior operational leader of al-Qa’ida or an associated force who is a U.S. citizen under certain conditions.

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Senior Exec. Ass’n v. United States By Mary Grinman – Edited by Charlie Stiernberg Senior Exec. Ass’n v. United States, No. 8:12-cv-02297-AW (S.D. Md. Sept. 13, 2012) Slip opinion The United States District Court for the Southern District of Maryland granted a motion for a temporary preliminary injunction, enjoining the United States from executing any part of Section 11 of the Stock Trading on Congressional Knowledge Act of 2012 (“STOCK Act” or “Act”), and from obliging federal employees to divulge ... Read More...