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Lawsuit seeks access to more secret court opinions
Headline Topics |
2014/05/02 10:42
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The Obama administration has failed to turn over documents under public-records requests detailing still-secret court orders about the scope and legality of National Security Agency surveillance, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a civil liberties group, said the Justice Department failed under its legally prescribed deadline to hand over documents in four requests since last year under the Freedom of Information Act. The requests sought, among other documents, secret opinions from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court exploring whether the NSA violated the law in collecting Americans' Internet communications.
A Justice Department spokesman said Thursday that the agency was "committed to a transparent and open government, and makes every attempt to comply with Freedom of Information requests in a timely and efficient manner while ensuring that classified or sensitive information is not improperly released."
The lawsuit comes at a time when the president has promised to be more transparent on how the intelligence agencies conduct surveillance. As part of its response to the fallout from former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden's disclosures, the administration has declassified hundreds of pages of documents regarding the secret surveillance programs, including many of the surveillance court opinions.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has aggressively sought access to the secret court's records, and some recently disclosed documents were the result of those lawsuits. EFF's most recent FOIA requests, among those challenged Thursday in U.S. District Court in Washington, also sought opinions from the secret appeals court and, if any were to exist, at the Supreme Court.
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Tokyo court starts Mt. Gox bankruptcy proceedings
Headline Topics |
2014/04/25 10:01
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Bankruptcy proceedings have begun for Mt. Gox, a move that was widely expected after the Tokyo District Court decided earlier this month that the bitcoin exchange would not be able to resurrect itself.
An administrator will try to sell the company's assets, but many creditors, including those who had bitcoins with the exchange, might not get their money back.
After Mt. Gox went offline in February, its CEO said tens of thousands of bitcoins worth several hundred million dollars were unaccounted for.
Mt Gox has suggested the bitcoins were stolen. The company has not been able to confirm the bitcoin balances of its users.
Bitcoins, created in 2009, are used for transactions across borders without third parties such as banks and have become a popular investment. |
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High court to hear dispute about TV over Internet
Headline Topics |
2014/04/21 13:23
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Thirty years ago, big media companies failed to convince the Supreme Court of the threat posed by home video recordings.
Now they're back — and trying to rein in a different innovation that they say threatens their financial well-being.
The battle has moved out of viewers' living rooms, where people once marveled at their ability to pop a cassette into a recorder and capture their favorite programs or the sporting event they wouldn't be home to see.
The new legal fight shifts to the Supreme Court Tuesday with arguments against a startup business using Internet-based technology to give subscribers the ability to watch programs anywhere they can take portable devices.
Aereo takes free television signals from the airwaves and sends them over the Internet to paying subscribers in 11 cities. |
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Lawyer: Evaluate stabbing suspect's mental health
Headline Topics |
2014/04/15 13:31
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The attorney for a 16-year-old accused of stabbing 21 other students and a security guard at their high school said Thursday he wants to have a mental health expert evaluate the boy and hopes to have the case moved to juvenile court.
For now, Alex Hribal is charged as an adult with four counts of attempted homicide, 21 counts of aggravated assault and a weapons charge, and is being held without bond in the Westmoreland County juvenile detention center.
In an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America," attorney Patrick Thomassey acknowledged that his client stabbed the victims, and said any defense he offers will likely be based on the boy's psychological state, which he hopes to have an expert evaluate soon.
"I would assume so, yes, depending on what the mental health experts tell me," Thomassey said.
He said that, under Pennsylvania law, he will have to convince a judge that Hribal can be rehabilitated in juvenile court, which would have jurisdiction over him until he's 21. If convicted as an adult, Hribal faces likely decades in prison.
The attorney told several media outlets that Hribal was remorseful, though he acknowledged his client did not appear to appreciate the gravity of his actions. Thomassey said he is still getting to know his client, saying he spoke with Hribal only for about 20 minutes before his arraignment late Wednesday. |
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