Law

National

Justice Department Sues North Carolina Over Voter ID Law

5:16pm September 30, 2013

by Carrie Johnson

The lawsuit takes aim at provisions that limit early voting periods and require a government photo ID as an illegal form of discrimination against minorities at the ballot box, according to a person briefed on the Justice Department's plans.

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BP Oil Spill Trial To Begin Second Phase

11:16am September 28, 2013

The months-long federal trial is examining how much fault should be placed on BP and its contractors for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion. The accident killed 11 rig workers and released almost 5 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico. Host Scott Simon speaks with NPR's Debbie Elliott to preview the civil trial.

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Law professor Lawrence Lessig, shown here in 2009, is suing an Australian record label for threatening to sue him over an alleged YouTube copyright violation.

Record Label Picks Copyright Fight — With The Wrong Guy

5:32pm September 27, 2013

by Laura Sydell

Lawrence Lessig was not pleased when Liberation Music persuaded YouTube to take down one of his online lectures because of an alleged copyright violation. So Lessig, one of the most famous copyright attorneys in the world, decided to take a stand against broad, intimidating takedown notices.

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National

Dear Lawyers: Order In The &*%# Court!

1:33pm September 27, 2013

by Tanya Ballard Brown

Some attorneys have gotten nasty and others want it to stop. In New York, a group has decided to tackle the decrease in civility through song.

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Jonah Engle has written for Foreign Policy, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and The New York City Independent.

Big Pharma And Meth Cooks Agree: Keep Cold Meds Over The Counter

5:11pm September 26, 2013

In 2006, Oregon successfully made pseudoephedrine, a key ingredient of meth, a prescription drug. Since then, Mother Jones' Jonah Engle reports, 24 states have tried to follow suit — and 23 have failed. Engle attributes those failures to pharmaceutical companies' massive lobbying efforts.

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Some reputation management companies required that its writers have a certain number of Yelp friends. Yelp says it welcomed the New York attorney general's crackdown on fake reviewers.

Fake Reviewers Get Zero Stars From New York Attorney General

12:04pm September 25, 2013

by Laura Sydell

Nineteen companies agreed to pay more than $350,000 in penalties to settle accusations that they wrote or bought phony online reviews of their products, services or restaurants.

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The NSA says the site's location near Salt Lake City will simplify staffing and the largely treeless surroundings will make the center relatively easy to secure and monitor.

National

Booting Up: New NSA Data Farm Takes Root In Utah

8:38pm September 23, 2013

by Howard Berkes

Even as it continues to grapple with concerns about its data-gathering operations, the National Security Agency is poised to open a massive facility where cellphone, text message, email and landline data can be stored and analyzed.

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Edward Snowden's leaks about the NSA's secret surveillance program have pushed the agency to expedite planned reforms ahead of schedule, according to NSA officials.

The Effects Of The Snowden Leaks Aren't What He Intended

5:24pm September 20, 2013

by Tom Gjelten

Critics of the NSA's secret surveillance hoped the debate that followed Edward Snowden's leaks would prompt the NSA to rethink the operation. Instead, one of the most noticeable effects so far has been a diversion of resources away from intelligence missions toward assessing damage from the leaks.

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Holder Makes Moral Argument Against Mandatory Sentences

6:10am September 20, 2013

Attorney General Eric Holder says the criminal justice system is broken. He spoke out on federal mandatory sentencing requirements in a speech to the Congressional Black Caucus on Thursday.

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President Obama nominates Robert Wilkins, Patricia Millett and Nina Pillard to fill the remaining vacancies on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on June 4.

Republicans Push Back On Obama's D.C. Court Nominees

7:07pm September 19, 2013

by Ailsa Chang

President Obama has been able to fill one opening on a key appeals court, but three more remain. And GOP senators are signaling that they'll block those remaining nominations, saying the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals doesn't really need that many judges.

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