U.S. Justice Department v. FIFA Executives and Others in Bribery Indictment

In an ironic twist, the U.S. Justice Department unsealed a 47-count indictment this morning charging nine present and former officials of the Federation Internationale de Football Association (better known by its acronym, FIFA) and five sports marketing executives with fraud, racketeering, bribery and money laundering. The guilty pleas of four individuals and two entities relating…

Read More

Cell Tower Location Data Privacy Decision Reversed

Last July, we reported on United States v. Davis, an Eleventh Circuit decision in favor of privacy rights. In that case, a three-judge panel held that cell phone users have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their cell phone location data. If the government wants to collect the data, it must first obtain a probable-cause…

Read More

Laptops, Border Checks and The Fourth Amendment

Photo: “LAX-International-checkin” by TimBray at en.wikipedia.   Developments in law are sluggish compared to the rapid rate of technological advancement, and courts must constantly apply old legal principles to technologies which were not contemplated at the time the laws were enacted.   Recently, technology has been at the forefront of privacy rights debates, in light of…

Read More

Your Mom and the Courts Agree: Naked Online Pix are Not OK

Since the 1990s and the rise of the Internet and social media, each one of us has become increasingly aware of the risks and dangers of unwanted posts and how fast a “discreet” image can go viral. The development and evolution of the Internet has brought with it a host of novel legal issues, from…

Read More

Bureaucracy Unlimited

This article first appeared on FEE.org – you can access this version at https://fee.org/freeman/detail/bureaucracy-unlimited Big Gov and Big Biz. Are they holding hands, shaking hands, or boxing? It depends on the day and the issue. But while Big Biz hardly seems like a sympathetic character, Big Gov always has the upper hand. Remember Arthur Anderson? Perhaps…

Read More

SCOTUS Rules No Felony for Throwing the Little Ones Overboard

This week, the United States Supreme Court resolved some fishy matters on which prosecutors sought to base a federal felony conviction. The case, Yates v. United States, arose from a offshore inspection of a commercial fishing vessel in the Gulf of Mexico. During the inspection, a federal agent found that the ship’s catch contained undersized…

Read More

Court Reins In Prosecutorial Overreach in Insider Trading Cases

In an effort to reinstate powers stripped from them by the Court of Appeals in U.S. v. Newman and Chiasson, prosecutors have sought a rehearing of the landmark Second Circuit decision which severely curtailed the scope of insider trading cases. The case is one which has already seen a dramatic reversal, so it is perhaps…

Read More

The Government’s [Subpoena] Power is Not Infinite

It’s not every day that a federal court likens an Assistant U.S. Attorney’s argument to that “of a grade schooler seeking to avoid detention.” But, in a recent opinion, Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of the D.C. District Court did just that. In so doing, he reminded us that—despite the government’s (admitted) routine abuse of its…

Read More