News & Commentary

What happens when legislatures pass laws enabling law enforcement to obtain sensitive, private information about people without requiring any evidence of criminal activity, and without any outside oversight whatsoever?

Thanks to Edward Snowden we now understand that the NSA runs many dragnet surveillance programs, some of which target Americans. But a story yesterday from Washington, D.C. public radio station WAMU is a reminder that dragnet surveillance is not just a tool of the NSA—the local police use mass surveillance as well.

Late last night, like many LGBT South Asian Americans, I waited anxiously to see how India's Supreme Court would rule on a colonial-era law that criminalized homosexuality. The ruling came in just after midnight Eastern Standard Time, and it was a major setback: the Court reversed a 2009 lower court judgment and restored the ban on homosexuality.

Last week, the world lost a great man, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela.

The following op-ed was originally published by The Hill.

Last week I wrote about how a central problem with reliance on the FISA Court as a principal pillar of NSA oversight is that the court, in an environment of extreme secrecy and without an adversarial proceeding, has no reliable means of determining whether its orders have been carried out. We have learned plenty in recent months about the agency’s failure to follow the law.

A federal district court in Washington will hear arguments this afternoon in the ACLU's lawsuit on behalf of American citizen Amir Meshal. In 2007, FBI agents orchestrated Mr. Meshal's secret detention for four months in East Africa. During that time, Mr. Meshal was threatened with torture and rendered between three different countries – Kenya, Somalia, and Ethiopia – in an attempt to coerce a false confession from him. He was never charged with a crime.

Today's worldwide celebrations of international Human Rights Day coincide with the commemoration of the life and legacy of the late Nelson Mandela – the freedom fighter, political prisoner, African National Congress leader, and first president of post-apartheid South Africa.

An earlier blog on this site argued, rightly, that Dan Snyder, owner of a certain Washington football club, should voluntarily change the name of his team. He should. It's demeaning and wrong, full stop.