The state secrets privilege has increasingly become a "get out of jail free" card for the gov't, allowing it to violate the Constitution with judicial impunity so long as it invokes secrecy.

@PatrickCToomey and I explain the problem here:

theguardian.com/commentisfree/… @PatrickCToomey The Supreme Court now has a chance to address this problem, if it grants a petition filed on behalf of @Wikimedia by @knightcolumbia and @ACLU.

The case is a challenge to the NSA's "Upstream surveillance," a form of warrantless monitoring of Americans' int'l communications.

Today at @knightcolumbia, we’re releasing a tool to improve access to opinions authored by the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel.

It’s a Twitter account — @OLCforthepeople — that lets you know every time the OLC publishes an opinion in its reading room.

1/ @knightcolumbia @OLCforthepeople Why is this tool necessary? 2/

Today, Senators @ChrisCoons, @amyklobuchar, and @senrobportman published a draft of a social-media transparency bill. The bill is an important step forward in the debate about how to regulate social media. A quick 🧵 1/

knightcolumbia.org/content/knight… One of the challenges in figuring out whether and how to regulate social media is in understanding precisely what the problems with the platforms are and how supposed solutions might work out in practice. 2/

This is a disturbing development.

Last Friday, Facebook sent a cease-and-desist letter to two NYU researchers (@LauraEdelson2 and Damon McCoy), demanding that they shut down their research into political ads and disinformation on FB’s platform.

wsj.com/articles/faceb… The researchers (w/ the help of others) are responsible for a browser plug-in called Ad Observer, which allows FB users to voluntarily share very limited and anonymous data about the political ads that FB shows them. You can read about Ad Observer here:

adobservatory.org

A federal court just held that about 1/4 of all Office of Legal Counsel opinions probably fall w/in the provision of the Freedom of Information Act requiring proactive disclosure to the public.

This is a groundbreaking ruling. Let me explain.

knightcolumbia.org/documents/6e7d… The Office of Legal Counsel (OLC) is a subdivision of the Department of Justice tasked with issuing authoritative interpretations of law for the executive branch.

It has been described as the "Supreme Court of the executive branch."

pbs.org/newshour/show/…

The last case I argued at the ACLU just got decided—nearly 4 years later. It was a while in the making, but it's an important ruling on NSA surveillance. Read the opinion at the link, and read on here for a few of thoughts about the decision.

aclu.org/legal-document… First, this decision wouldn't have been possible without Edward @Snowden's disclosures. They enabled groundbreaking reporting on digital surveillance, an international reckoning on digital privacy, and of course a domestic reckoning—in Congress and the courts—on NSA surveillance.

Court refuses to issue an injunction against the publication of Bolton’s book

courtlistener.com/recap/gov.usco… Court says that Bolton was wrong to publish without letting the government complete its review of his book.

Can @realDonaldTrump stop @AmbJohnBolton from publishing his book? Almost certainly not. Here’s why. 1/ Some quick background, first. Bolton’s memoir on his time in the White House is scheduled to be published next Tuesday. Yesterday, though, the Department of Justice sued Bolton, appearing to ask a federal court to stop the publication. 2/

justsecurity.org/wp-content/upl…

Today, the Supreme Court decided FMI v. Argus Leader Media, a case that may have an outsize impact on public understanding of private services and technologies used by the government to perform official functions.

Here’s a quick explanation of why. /1

supremecourt.gov/opinions/18pdf… The case was about the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which entitles members of the public to ask federal agencies for their records. The agencies have to turn requested records over unless they fall within an “exemption” to FOIA. /2

Yesterday, @ProPublica reported that Facebook has modified its site in a way that prevents journalists from studying political ads on the platform.

It’s an important story that shows Facebook’s hostility to journalism about Facebook.

Let me explain. /1

propublica.org/article/facebo… First, it’s essential that journalists and researchers be able to study Facebook’s platform, so that we can all answer some basic questions: Is Facebook distorting public discourse? Is it deepening our social divisions? Is it being highjacked to manipulate our elections? /2

Great job this morning by @NateWessler, arguing in the Supreme Court to make sure we don’t have to sacrifice our privacy to use new technology.

A few thoughts on the argument:

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Chief Justice Roberts may have set himself up to extend his Riley decision to cellular location data. Justice Alito argued many times that Carpenter is indistinguishable from Smith and Miller. 1/