Let The Sun Shine In: WaPo and the Magistrates' Revolt

Over at Just Security, I have a new piece on the Washington Post's interesting story about the increasingly aggressive role some federal magistrate judges are playing in policing criminal investigations involving digital media. In this “Magistrates’ Revolt”, the judges who review and authorize almost all federal search warrants and wiretaps are growing more critical of government assertions–and increasingly publishing their opinions so as to educate and inform their colleagues around the country. While at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, I worked with my colleagues to educate magistrate judges confronting these novel digital search and seizure issues. In the post I discuss the background behind the Post story, and how critical privacy decisions continue to be made every day, in secret. Its great that a small but increasing number of magistrate judges are working hard to surface these issues so that they may be debated and resolved with the full benefit of open judicial scrutiny and public debate.

To read more, click here.

Add new comment