Project
•
Open Courts
Transparency has always been essential to the rule of law and the legitimacy of our court system. But government secrecy has grown dramatically over the last fe…
Open Government
Blog
•
Bringing the Fight for Court Transparency to the Ninth Circuit
You may recall that in February, a federal district court in Fresno denied a petition I filed with the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Northern Cali…
Blog
•
Essay in the Boston Review
Today I have a response piece up on the Boston Review, responding to an intriguing essay by Bruce Schneier and CIS affiliate Henry Farrell about how to protect…
Democracy's Dilemma
The key term that recurs throughout Henry Farrell’s and Bruce Schneier’s essay is “trust.” That is no surprise, as the concept unites both authors’ bodies of wo…
Press
•
What Does Chalking Tires Have To Do With The Fourth Amendment?
"To those within and without the legal profession, the ruling is strange. "It's an interesting and unusual case," says Stephen Smith, retired…
Smart is Not Enough
Abstract Despite increasing concern from the information security community, it is far from clear that even the smartest of U.S. cities are in a position to de…
US takes tentative steps toward opening up government data
At the beginning of this year, President Trump signed into law the Open, Public, Electronic and Necessary Government Data Act, requiring that nonsensitive gover…
Blog
•
Court Refuses to Shed Light on Government’s Attempt to Break Facebook Messenger Encryption
On February 11, a federal court in Fresno denied a motion to unseal that I had filed last November along with the ACLU, the ACLU of Northern California, and the…
Press
•
Attacking a Pay Wall That Hides Public Court Filings
"“Federal courts need to be providing this access without charge,” said Stephen W. Smith, who was until recently a federal magistrate judge in Houston and…
Blog
•
Wrapping Up a Month of Court Transparency Efforts
As I mentioned in my previous blog post, 2019 is shaping up to be a big year for increased transparency in our nation's courts. At CIS, we've had a whir…
Brief of Retired Federal Judges as Amici Curiae in Support of Neither Party
Amicus curiaei brief of retired judges, including CIS Director of Fourth Amendment and Open Courts, in the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in a case ch…
Brief of Amici Curiae Former U.S. Magistrate Judges in Support of Petitioners
Amicus brief of former magistrate judges, including CIS Director of Fourth Amendment and Open Courts Stephen Wm. Smith, in support of Petitioners-Appellants Jas…