Reviewing why a Justice Gorsuch ‘might be hard to pigeonhole on criminal justice issues’

We are now onlya week from the start of confirmation hearings for Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, and this new extended AP article reviews Judge Gorsuch's record onthe cases that I usually give the most attention. The article is headlined "Gorsuch has ruled for police, and suspects, in crime cases," and here are excerpts: Judge Neil Gorsuch wasn't convinced that a teenager who made burping sounds in a classroom should be arrested, handcuffed and taken to juvenile detention in a police car.

Nominee to be Navy secretary withdraws

The USS John C. Stennis sails in the Philippine Sea. The Trump administration's choice to become the next Navy secretary has pulled his name from consideration, the Pentagon said Sunday, the second nominee to head a military service who has bowed out in recent weeks.

Electronic media searches at border crossings raise worry

Watchdog groups that keep tabs on digital privacy rights are concerned that U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agents are searching the phones and other digital devices of international travelers at border checkpoints in U.S. airports. The issue gained attention recently after at least three travelers, including a Canadian journalist, spoke out publicly about their experiences.

The Latest: USDA reposts some online animal welfare records

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has reposted some animal welfare records following complaints from animal rights groups and U.S. Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer . The records posted Friday do not include inspection reports on other animal facilities such as horse and dog breeding centers.

Microsoft defeats DOJ appeal in cloud data privacy case

Microsoft notches another win in its battle to protect cloud data privacy, as an appeals court quashes the DOJ appeal over a warrant for data stored in an Ireland data center. Microsoft notched another win in its battle to protect cloud data privacy for data stored outside of the United States when an appeals court declined to reconsider its decision preventing the U.S. government from forcing Microsoft to turn over cloud data.

The Time is NOW to Put Privacy Back into Intelligence Gathering

In the months following the 9-11 terror attacks, as America's intelligence agencies struggled to explain how they missed connecting the dots leading to the attacks, there began a major push both inside and outside government to ensure such a lapse never occurred again. The focal point of this push was the intelligence community's ability to access what it determined to be critical information -- emails, text messages, phone calls, and any other digital communication -- necessary for collecting and analyzing to find "suspicious" activity.

FCC Chair Wheeler To Step Down

The Federal Communications Commission is about to get a big shakeup in terms of personnel and quite likely in policy. On Thursday, FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler [seen here], who pushed through controversial rules protecting net neutrality and guarding consumer privacy, announced he will step down from the commission on Jan. 20, the same day that Donald Trump will be inaugurated as president.

3 Panel urges better cybersecurity to President-elect Trump

A presidential commission on Friday made 16 urgent recommendations to improve the nation's cybersecurity, including creating a nutritional-type label to help consumers shop wisely and appointing a new international ambassador on the subject - weeks before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. The release of the 100-page report follows the worst hacking of U.S. government systems in history and accusations by the Obama administration that Russia meddled in the U.S. presidential election by hacking Democrats.

Illinois transgender student wins round in closely watched bathroom case

A federal magistrate judge recommended this week that a transgender girl at the center of a lawsuit over restroom and locker room access be able to use the girls' locker room at her Illinois high school, writing that the Constitution doesn't protect students against having to share such facilities with their transgender peers. In an 82-page report, Magistrate Judge Jeffrey T. Gilbert sided against a group of students and parents who sought a preliminary injunction to force the girl to use the boys' locker room or a private bathroom while the court moves forward with the case.

Court: US does not have to disclose Army school trainees

A federal appeals court says the defense department does not have to disclose the names of foreign students who attend a U.S. Army school whose predecessor trained South American military officials who were linked to massacres and other crimes. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 Friday that disclosing the names of students at the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation would be an unwarranted invasion of personal privacy that could expose them to violence.

Hack of San Bernardino attackera s iPhone raises big questions

After the attack in San Bernardino last December that killed 14 people and wounded 22 others, the FBI hired a private hacker to unlock the iPhone of one of the two dead terrorists. Perhaps the FBI learned some of Syed Rizwan Farook's evil secrets.

Judge in Texas temporarily blocks President Obama’s transgender rules

A federal judge in Texas has blocked the Obama administration's order that requires public schools to let transgender students use the bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their chosen gender identity. In a temporary injunction signed Sunday, U.S. District Judge Reed O'Connor ruled that the federal education law known as Title IX "is not ambiguous" about sex being defined as "the biological and anatomical differences between male and female students as determined at their birth."

Google Reports Record Number of Government Requests for User Data

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Microsoft Wins Protection for E-Mails in Non-US Data Centers

Microsoft won't be forced to turn over e-mails stored in its Ireland data center to the US government for a drug investigation, an appeals court said in a decision that may affect data security throughout the US technology industry. The ruling on Thursday overturned a 2014 decision ordering Microsoft to hand over messages of a suspected drug trafficker.

U.S. court to hear arguments in warrantless NSA spying case

A U.S. appeals court will weigh a constitutional challenge on Wednesday to a warrantless government surveillance programme brought by an Oregon man found guilty of attempting to detonate a bomb in 2010 during a Christmas tree-lighting ceremony. The case before a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is the first of its kind to consider whether a criminal defendant's constitutional privacy rights are violated under a National Security Agency programme that allows spying on Americans' international phone calls and internet communications.