Outside the Beltway

Law enforcement remains unhappy about the recent changes that will make it harder to break into a locked smartphone.

Poor Joe Biden can’t stay out of the news. This time, it’s not one of his gaffes but one by his youngest son.

A District of Columbia Judge has ruled that photographs of women taken in public do not violate the law.

Attorneys for celebrities caught up in the leak of nude photographs are targeting Google.

The FBI and other law enforcement agencies are pushing back against Apple and Google’s efforts to provide greater privacy to users.. They’re wrong.

A recent change by Apple is good news for advocates of privacy and civil liberties in the Internet Age.

Apple announced a stunning array of upgraded and new products yesterday.

Another Federal appellate Court has struck down state law bans on same-sex marriage, but the only thing that matters now is the Supreme Court.

A good law has one rather silly unintended consequence.

Our laws and social norms have not caught up to modern life.

Judging by the early results, the so-called “Right To Be Forgotten” recently created by Europe’s highest court is creating more problems than it will solve.

There’s a new round of allegations about American spying on Germany.

Hobby Lobby Is an important decision, but it’s one that the Supreme Court handed down a week earlier that will have the widest impact.

Another area where the law has not caught up with technology.

A unanimous Supreme Court rules that the Fourth Amendment bars police from searching your electronic device without a warrant.

Retired General Keith Alexander is hawking his services to banks at princely sums.

Should the police be able to track you without a warrant? One Federal Appeals Court says no.

Once ubiquitous, checks are disappearing as a means of payment.

A Reuters political blogger has set tongues wagging about the possibility another First Lady might run for the U.S. Senate.

The so-called “right to be forgotten” created by Europe’s highest court is unworkable, and ultimately absurd.

Bring in the lawyers!

A pretty clear violation of the First Amendment.

Today’s oral argument before the Supreme Court on the issue of police searches of cell phones and smartphones left much up in the air.

I’m uneasy about a world in which a private conversation, illegally recorded, can be used in this fashion.

The Justice Department thinks police should be able to search the smart phones of anyone arrested for anything.

The Court gets the result right, but their reasoning will make things much more difficult for courts, defendants, and victims.

Wisconsin recently became the third state to criminalize revenge porn. Why is it still legal in the other 47?

Interactions between consumers and businesses online are starting to have an impact on the legal system.

Thanks to Edward Snowden, the Washington Post and the Guardian are Pulitzer Prize winners.

Bill Clinton seems far more understanding of Edward Snowden than the current President

Many Republicans won’t like Jeb Bush’s recent comments about illegal immigration, but he’s right.

The DOD says Walmart was violating its trademarks.

From Massachusetts, a ruling that might make little sense to the lay person but which seems to be right on the law.

If something is going to be done about an out of control National Security State, it’ll be because the American people demand it.

Some perspective from Sochi.

Marlise Munoz is finally at peace, but the law that kept her hooked up to machines for two months remains on the books.

From Florida, a small victory for Fourth Amendment rights.

The “paper of record” joins the call for some kind of deal with Edward Snowden.

.Many have tried to justify N.S.A. data mining on the theory that it could have prevented 9/11. Is that true?

Another Federal District Court ruling on the Constitutionality of the NSA’s data mining program, this time more favorable to the NSA.

Vladimir Putin seems to be getting a lot of love from cultural conservatives in the United States.

Does a determination that NSA data collection practices are likely unconstitutional mean that Edward Snowden’s actions were, in some sense, justified?