Argument in the government’s appeal against the provision of the 2012 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), which grants the military the authority to indefinitely detain US citizens, took place this morning at the Second Circuit United States Court of Appeals. The lawsuit was filed in 2012 by a group of journalists and activists that includes [...]

UPDATE – 9:10 PM EST Josh Gerstein of POLITICO reports the Feinstein Amendment has been dropped: Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-Mich.) announced the removal of Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s indefinite detention amendment Tuesday afternoon as he described the results of a House-Senate conference on the 2013 National Defense Authorization Act. “The language of the [...]

A law that legalized warrantless wiretapping conducted by the National Security Agency (NSA) will be argued at the United States Supreme Court in October. The lawsuit will be heard by the Supreme Court in October. The law—the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Amendments Act (FAA)—is already on its way to being reauthorized by Congress, since the House [...]

UPDATE: Less than twenty-four hours later, as expected, Obama Justice Department files appeal to federal judge’s ruling. Original Post A federal judge issued a ruling on September 12 that permanently enjoined a provision of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that was signed by President Barack Obama codifying indefinite military detention into United State law [...]

Well-known to anyone in the movement to end mountaintop removal—the destructive practice of blowing up mountains to get to coal, Keeper of the Mountains Larry Gibson had a heart attack and died yesterday at the age of sixty-five. Gibson was an activist, who lived in Welch, West Virginia, and courageously and valiantly stood up to [...]

Plaintiffs, who won a preliminary injunction in May against a provision of the Homeland Battlefield Act or the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), are pushing for a permanent injunction to this provision of the NDAA. Citing recent statements made by the United States government that it made in a filed brief to a federal court, [...]

At the start of the first hearing on a lawsuit challenging the Homeland Battlefield Act, a federal judge appeared to be “extremely skeptical” that those pursuing the challenge had grounds to sue the US government. However, by the end of the hearing, the judge acknowledged plaintiffs had made some strong arguments on why there was [...]

“The first large array of photographs depicting the devastating impact of US unmanned aircraft (‘drone’) attacks on innocent civilians in Pakistan” goes on display in London today. Its photographic evidence belies claims by the U.S. of no collateral killing of civilians by the drone attacks. The exhibit opens just as former CIA counsel John Rizzo is being charged for murder in Pakistan for his role in approving the attacks, and as Human Rights Watch has begun a campaign to seek the prosecution of Bush administration officials for torture. Is the Obama administration listening? Not only are they against investigations or prosecutions of past officials, they have engaged in war crimes of their own, most particularly around the controversial drone program of targeted killings.