News & Commentary

One hundred days have passed since the Biden-Harris administration assumed office. From the start, the administration faced the monumental task of undoing the vast harms of the Trump presidency while addressing an ongoing pandemic. Concurrently, a nationwide reckoning with systemic racism, particularly in the policing and criminal legal systems, serves as a reminder that many of this country’s systems were broken long before Trump. Now is our chance, as we pick up the pieces, to reform and rebuild our institutions based on the painful truths that have been further highlighted over the past four years. T

If you’re reading this article, you’re probably not one of the millions of people living without broadband access in America. People living without broadband access — who are disproportionately non-white people, low income, or rural — do not have access to equal opportunities in education, employment, banking, and other important components of connection and social mobility. That was the case before the pandemic, and it’s even worse now. T

This week, 25 years ago, Congress enacted a pair of laws that severely restricted the ability of incarcerated people to raise constitutional challenges against egregious conditions of their confinement, as well as unjust and wrongful convictions. In doing so, it furthered its ongoing project of reducing incarcerated people to second-class citizens. Over the last 25 years, this cruel pair of laws — the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA) and the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act (AEDPA) — have all but closed the federal courthouse doors to life and death lawsuits. L

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Any moment now the Supreme Court could issue a decision that would permit taxpayer-funded government programs to turn people away because they are Jewish, Muslim, Mormon, or otherwise do not meet a government contractor’s religious requirements. I

Every year, millions of people cross the U.S. border through airports, land crossings, and other ports of entry. Each will pass through customs before entering the country. For some travelers, however, the process isn’t simple. A growing number of travelers are being detained and subjected to warrantless and suspicionless searches of their phones, laptops, and other electronic devices by border officers who may cite a host of reasons for doing so, or no reason at all. By searching travelers’ electronic devices, border officers can access a vast array of personal, sensitive information, including photos, texts, emails, internet browsing history, and location data. This happens to U.S. citizens, permanent residents, tourists, and business travelers. I

Last year, the world watched Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin kill George Floyd in plain sight after arresting him for an alleged counterfeit bill at a convenience store. The footage released from the encounter sparked an international movement as protesters took to the streets for months, calling for racial justice and an end to police brutality. O

Apps you use every day on your phone collect and sell sensitive data, including your location over time. That data could wind up in government hands without you even knowing it — and it’s already happening to millions of people across the country. When the government wants to obtain our private information, like our location data, the Fourth Amendment requires it to go to court and obtain a warrant, but over the past year, we’ve learned that the government has been buying its way around this requirement. Agencies are purchasing location data and other sensitive information from private companies without ever setting foot in a court. T

For decades, a special court—the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, or “FISC”—has issued secret legal opinions authorizing the U.S. government to conduct sweeping programs of electronic surveillance. These opinions have had a profound impact on Americans’ rights to privacy, free expression, and free association. But many of them are entirely hidden from public view. S