Tag: SUPREMECOURT

Yesterday, the Supreme Court agreed to hear a case that could determine whether or not Congress can remove works from the public domain and place them under copyright. At issue is a ruling from the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled in July against a group of orchestra conductors, educators, publishers, and film archivists, whose professional lives rely on public domain works. The ...

Forget Roe v. Wade. Forget Miranda v. Arizona. Forget 'The People vs. Larry Flynt.' They're all milestone cases, to be sure, but they all pale in comparison to the virulent ideological divide that's ravaging today's Supreme Court: iPad v. Kindle. In a recent interview with C-SPAN, Justice Elena Kagan confessed that she reads many of her court briefs on her Kindle, where, presumably, she can ...

A federal judge in California recently ruled that police can place a GPS on a person's car without his or her knowledge without seeking a warrant. CNN reports that Juan Pineda-Moreno's appeal was rejected for the third time in early August by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, which covers nine West Coast states. Pineda-Moreno claimed that Oregon DEA agents had violated his privacy by ...

Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor recently spoke at the University of Denver, and suggested that Wikileaks' publication of the so-called Afghan War Diaries could result in a court case over free speech, reports the Guardian. Sotomayor said that the relationship between unfettered speech and national security has been "a constant struggle in this society, between our security needs and our ...

The next time the police think about slapping a GPS tracking device on your car, they may be required to have a search warrant in their hands beforehand. In an opinion issued Friday, a D.C. Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals determined that unwarranted and prolonged GPS surveillance violates constitutionally mandated protections against unreasonable searches. Federal prosecutors used evidence ...

Supreme Court nominees have always been subjected to perhaps the most intense vetting process of any political official. But arguably no other candidate has been under the kind of microscopic scrutiny that Elena Kagan now faces, thanks to an organization that has opened up her inbox for all the world to explore. Created by the watchdog group Sunlight Foundation, 'Elena's Inbox' is an online ...

Back in December, we told you about a group of police officers in Ontario, California, who filed a lawsuit against their chief because he read scandalous text messages they sent on city-provided pagers. Now, nearly seven months later, the Supreme Court has weighed in (in spite of their technological ignorance), and have come down in favor of the snooping police chief. The court's unanimous ...

There's a load of great tech news happening out there every day, and, unfortunately, we just can't cover it all. Here are a few of the other noteworthy things we saw today on our never-ending journey through the wild, wild Web. Point the kids in this direction next time they ask where cursors come from. [From: swiss-miss] Atlantic staff editor Chris Good takes a look at how the Supreme ...

Public libraries, in theory, are supposed to be bastions of information. But with the rise of the Internet, many libraries have begun putting up online filters, to make sure users are using public broadband connections to search for actual information and not, well, porn. To many, it's a practical measure. But is it constitutional? According to the Washington state Supreme Court, it is. As the ...

Before he began his disastrous gubernatorial term in Sacramento, Arnold Schwarzenegger shot to international stardom on the strength of a Hollywood career defined by a violent onscreen persona. Today, though, Schwarzenegger finds himself staunchly defending a piece of California legislation aimed at limiting the spread of violent media, and the debate has now made it all the way to the Supreme ...

The position of Supreme Court justice might be the most secure, cushy job in the country, but it's certainly not as easy as it looks. Keeping your finger on the pulse of society long enough to fairly interpret the laws governing it definitely requires some leg work. And, as we found out yesterday, the job is sometimes so difficult that obscure social phenomena can manage to completely elude the ...

People will always argue about what should and shouldn't be protected under free speech, but most people who aren't named Michael Vick would agree that animal cruelty falls outside of its borders. Yesterday, however, the Supreme Court decided that current law governing the depiction of animal cruelty actually goes too far in prosecuting those who broadcast video or images of animal cruelty. In ...

In December, we told you about a group of police officers in Ontario, California, who had taken their Chief to court after discovering that he'd been reading sexually explicit text messages they had sent on pagers provided by the police department. After a lower court ruled in favor of Sergeant Jeff Quon and the three other plaintiffs (two of whom were Quon's wife and mistress, both policewomen), ...

The Web site of the Supreme Court has finally gotten a much needed makeover. Well, in truth, it's more than a makeover; the previous version of the site, which appeared to have been designed in 1992, has been rebuilt from scratch. The new version, which looks like it was designed in 2001, is much easier to navigate, and introduces several touches for improving navigation for regular users. The ...

After a group of police officers in Ontario, California discovered that their boss was reading texts they sent on city-provided pagers, they felt violated and took the case to court. Now, the highest court in the land is ready to weigh in, and the results could have far-reaching implications in offices across the country. As the LA Times reports, the Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal ...