From Public.Resource.org:
Public.Resource.Org and Fastcase, Inc. announced today that they will release a large and free archive of federal case law, including all Courts of Appeals decisions from 1950 to the present and all Supreme Court decisions since 1754. The archive will be public domain and usable by anyone for any purpose.
Archive of entries posted on November 2007
1.8 million pages of federal case law to become freely available
Bush Admin: What You Don’t Know Can’t Hurt Us, 2007 Version
From Talking Points Memo:
Another year has almost passed under the Bush Administration, and so it’s time to review how much less we know.
Last year, we launched the insanely ambitious project of recording every significant instance of this administration stifling government information. As we said then, “they’ve discontinued annual reports, classified normally public data, de-funded studies, [...]
Congress Keeps Telecoms on the Hook for Illegal Spying
From the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Both the full House of Representatives and the Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to keep telecommunications companies on the hook for their role in illegal government spying on millions of ordinary Americans — at least for now.
The bills each make changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). But, despite veto [...]
Yahoo settles lawsuit with jailed Chinese journalists
From the Mercury News:
Yahoo settled a lawsuit Tuesday brought against it by two imprisoned Chinese journalists who accused the Sunnyvale search giant of being complicit in their arrests for pro-democracy activities online.
In an unusual development, the deal was driven by the personal involvement of Yahoo Chief Executive and co-founder Jerry Yang, who publicly apologized to [...]
In the UK – Fraud fears prompt website retreat
From Kable’s Government Computing:
Land Registry has pulled potentially sensitive documents from its online service
As from midnight on 5 November 2007, online access to documents such as mortgage deeds and leases will be removed. Members of the public wishing to inspect or have copies of any such documents can do so by applying in writing to [...]
CREW Launches Collaborative Online Government Document Database – Governmentdocs.Org
From Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington:
Today, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), in conjunction with a coalition of government watchdog groups, launched a new online government document database, governmentdocs.org, at a tele-news conference.
The database will house Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) responses, and other government documents, from a number of organizations, [...]
Judge Orders Telecommunications Companies to Preserve Evidence in Government Surveillance Cases
From the Electronic Frontier Foundation:
A federal judge today ruled on a preservation motion filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), ordering that telecommunications companies must preserve any evidence of collaborating with the government in illegal spying on ordinary Americans.
In his ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Vaughn Walker ordered the telecommunications companies to halt any routine [...]
Secrecy in Farm Bill
From The Secrecy File:
You might think that the massive farm bill now on the table has nothing to do with government secrecy, but it does.
OpenTheGovernment.org, an umbrella organization of conservative and liberal organizations, discovered a provision in the measure that would create an exemption to the Freedom of Information Act for all records related to [...]
Is Congress Trying to Sneak a Thoughtcrime Bill?
From OpenCongress.org:
If it hadn’t been for the blogs, I, like many others, wouldn’t have noticed H.R.1955, the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007. The bill was quietly approved by the House last week on a near-unanimous vote and the main stream media has all but ignored it. But as bloggers everywhere have [...]
The Battle Over The Clinton Papers
From the CBS News Horserace blog:
On Friday, The Politico reported that the Clinton library was preparing 10,000 pages of Hillary Clinton’s “daily schedules” to be released in late January, though that release could be slowed down by the review process. Clinton has chalked up delays in releasing the documents to the difficulty of processing them [...]