Tag: Criminal Procedure

You’ve asked me to discuss whether it is possible, after 9/11, tostrike a sensible balance between privacy and security through law andtechnology. I will argue that it is indeed possible to strike a sensiblebalance. But often, the balance depends not on judges alone, but onlegislators, regulators, technologists, and, ultimately, on an engagedcitizenry, reflecting a national consensus about what sort of privacyinvasions are reasonable and unreasonable. I will give specific examplesof areas where the balance has been struck. I will suggest that it is easierto strike that balance when responding to government invasions of privacy, than when responding to invasions of privacy by the privatesector—by companies like Google and Facebook, which today havemore power over privacy and free speech than any King, President, or Supreme Court Justice. Read More …

The difference between confronting this enemy, whether it is on the battlefield or meeting it in the stealth in which al Qaeda prefers to operate, is that the enemy does not present like a true traditional military enemy. Now if you thought about that in a logical way, that is a pretty good argument for according less in the way of rights and privileges, rather than more. In presenting itself as a non-traditional enemy, al Qaeda is subverting the laws and customs of war, which are designed to protect civilians. Instead, we are confronting an enemy that acts in stealth and specifically targets civilians for mass murder. Read More …