How surveillance dragnets can be implemented in the post-Roe world. Teen charged with setting arson that led to five deaths. How did police ID him? A keyword search warrant. Here's what they did 1/ A typical warrant might say: we want to search X place for Y things based on these facts that provide probable cause. In this arson case, the govt said they wanted data about *all* users who searched for nine variations of the victims' address over the course of 15 days, PLUS 2/

After Dobbs, you're starting to see news that judges in places like LA and MI have put abortion bans on hold because they're unconstitutionally vague. What does that mean??? Here: A law can be so unclear that, as the Supreme Court has put it, "it leaves the public uncertain as to the conduct it prohibits." If you can't even tell what is and what is not legal conduct, a judge might say that the law is "void-for-vagueness" and violates due process rights.

The US Supreme Court decides there is no constitutionally protected right to a legal abortion: supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf… 6-3 decision-Breyer/Sotomayor/Kagan dissent: "With sorrow—for this Court, but more, for the many millions of American women who have today lost a fundamental constitutional protection—we dissent."

HOLY S**T: New FTC blog post: "The FTC Act prohibits unfair or deceptive practices. That would include the sale or use of – for example – RACIALLY BIASED ALGORITHMS" ftc.gov/news-events/bl…

Folks: the police can violate your Fourth Amendment rights sometimes if they enter your home without a warrant. But those rights aren't violated simply because the police have gathered evidence of illegal activity that happened *inside of your home* So this: is crazypants nonsense:

If you're planning on teaching remotely this fall semester, you have to think about privacy, but not maybe the way your university is telling you to. This is twitter, so I'll be quick. Three dimensions: 1/5 1. Faculty->student. This is the one you've been told about. Students have privacy concerns as your zoom classroom peers into their homes, family situations. You need to think about how to balance this with have a shared classroom experience. 2/5

*This is a very big deal in policing*: Berkeley, CA just became the first city in the U.S. to replace police enforcement of traffic violations with unarmed city employees. Why this matters: 1/ I'm not here to say this is bad or good, but help ppl understand the implications, which are significant. In policing, traffic enforcement is a *major* means of instrumental policing. Concretely: police stop drivers for driving 57 in a 55 zone, 2/

There’s a small detail here, but in a post-Ferguson world we should make note of it. All officers had body cameras that were rolling. Whatever else comes from this, it’s a reminder that body cameras by themselves don’t solve problems.

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1265645200145342469

You may not remember, but police body cameras were not commonplace before Ferguson. Then the Brown family called for a campaign "to ensure that every police officer working the streets in this country wears a body camera." The speed of that adoption was truly remarkable. 2/

Florida is going to police its borders now. So, what happens from a 4th Amendment perspective when the state installs a coronavirus checkpoint? One might think about this in 2 ways. 1) every stop of a NY or LA plate is a stop supported by reasonable suspicion of a crime 1/ and the crime here is violating Florida's quarantine order, which is considered a misdemeanor. In that sense, the stop is supported by reasonable suspicion, and would be reasonable even if it turns out that the plates do not support a recent trip from those states; or 2/

The President's quarantine tweet is stirring up a lot of confusion. Sometimes, even if we don't know the answers, it's helpful to untangle the legal *questions,* so a short PSA thread.
Q: Does the federal government have the authority to issue a state wide quarantine? 1/ --implies--On what basis would the POTUS assert this authority?
-----Article II inherent authority (often a loser)
-----Statutory authority like the Public Health Services Act & accompanying regs (lawfareblog.com/quarantine-pow…) 2/

A quick explanation bc there is genuine & disingenuous confusion about Trump tweeting "BACK TO WORK." UK's Boris Johnson ordered a nationwide lockdown: an order that you must shelter in place, only go out for 4 reasons, police will enforce. Could Trump do a reverse-version? 1/ No. The American federal constitution provides no inherent (implied) authority to the President to command any such thing to the public (nor is there any textual provision). Could the President cite a federal law and then enforce that law? No. There is no "Go Back To Work Law" 2/

OK, a very quick primer for you who are thinking "how can the state shut everything down?"
1. The states (and their cities) have *long* held what's called the "police power" to govern for the health, welfare, and safety of their citizens. It's NOT new, and it's not radical. 1/ 2. This truism has been stated "repeatedly" by the United States Supreme Court (mostly to contrast it with the limited powers of the federal government). This includes to power to *force* even unwilling businesses to shut down, place restrictions on individuals, curfews, etc. 2/

A decade of watching rapid change in policing and technology. Some big moments:
2011: 685,000+stops by the NYPD, mostly against young men of color. 2014: Ferguson riots after the fatal shooting of Michael Brown.

Lawprofs, a niche tweet: I teach a class that covers things like algorithms, privacy, etc. Yesterday we discussed smart cities and what that will mean for my students who will be living in them, presumably when they're in solid middle age. 1/ So many questions: like data collection/use/retention/access/monetization. They should be interested and they are. But thinking back, why is this just an "information privacy law" topic? You take this class b/c you are interested in "tech" issues. 2/

A failure of "human oversight" over the Facebook algorithm by @MikeIsaac is one example of *many* to come. 1/ nyti.ms/2yes6gu In Facebook's case, the harm was ad-targeting based on racist views. But the broader-human in the loop-problem will crop up everywhere. 2/