- “Judges seemed to be troubled that prosecutors in Manhattan had secretly searched the entire Facebook accounts of about 300 people who were not charged with a crime” [New York Times]
- Goshen, N.Y.: “Dozens of speakers thundered against the proposed asset forfeiture law at two public hearings held Monday by Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus.” [Goshen Chronicle; Neuhaus vetoes measure] Related, forfeiture at work in Pennsylvania [AP/same]
- Buried lede in breathless story about federal bank fines: “The agency receives a cut of up to 3 percent of its share of the total settlements for its Working Capital Fund, a slush fund common across major government agencies.” [Newsweek]
- From amid the wreckage: Dan and Fran Keller abuse case [Austin American Statesman]
- “Missouri’s attorney general announced lawsuits against 13 [St. Louis] suburbs on Thursday, accusing them of ignoring a law that sets limits on revenue derived from traffic fines.” [NY Times via Tabarrok]
- “It is remarkable enough that an African-American man can be convicted by a jury for breaking into a store that video shows was burglarized by a white female.” [The Open File on Indiana prosecutorial misconduct case via Radley Balko]
- “Lawyers for California Attorney General Kamala Harris argued releasing non-violent inmates early would harm efforts to fight California wildfires. Harris told BuzzFeed News she first heard about this when she read it in the paper.” [BuzzFeed]
Filed under: California, Facebook, forfeiture, Fourth Amendment, Kamala Harris, law enforcement for profit, prosecutorial abuse
One Comment
Re the Facebook issue, “There is no question these Facebook accounts are like someone’s home,” the Judge said.
“Like” – yeah, maybe. But it seems to me the accounts are definitely – or at least arguably – not identical to someone’s home. Now what?
That seems to me the very first issue that must be resolved.
And every time I catch myself thinking I have no sympathy for people who cry “privacy!” after posting personal information on these social vanity sites, I also think how I would react if information I post when paying bills, or ordering a book, or even posting like this, were subject to surreptitious search. This is an important issue for our age.