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For years, the Justice Department has been conducting surveillance on computer networks like Facebook, or sending National Security Letters (NSLs) to obtain emails from Apple, Microsoft, and Google. Various national security laws (including the PATRIOT Act) prevent the companies that operate those networks from disclosing the fact that they’ve even received a NSL. Twitter is fed up with this secrecy. Yesterday, Twitter sued the DOJ alleging “prior restraint” – i.e., censorship – in that Twitter is being forced to refrain from speaking about how many NSLs it’s received....

In an appeal from an order enjoining defendants from encumbering the property listed in the forfeiture count of an indictment, the order is reversed where the district court needed to determine whether defendants were entitled to a pretrial hearing based on: (1) the length of the delay before the defendants received their post-restraint hearing; (2) the reason for the delay; (3) the defendants’ assertion of the right to such a hearing pretrial; and (4) the prejudice the defendants suffered due to the delay weighed against the strength of the United States’ interest in the subject property....

Defendant’s convictions for conspiracy to distribute and possess drugs and related crimes is affirmed as the automobile exception does not have any exigency requirement apart form the inherent mobility of the automobile, and thus, if the police have probable cause, the justification to conduct a warrantless search does not vanish once the police have established some degree of control over the automobile. Defendant’s remaining claims are rejected as without merit. Read US v....

You may have heard of the concept of a decentralized distributed ledger thanks to the popularity of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies that utilize blockchain technology. However, a recent innovation along similar lines caters particularly to users of cryptocurrencies: Decentralized, distributed dispute resolution. The idea is simple enough, if there’s a dispute, the parties to the dispute can implement a smart contract that will effectively present all the relevant facts to a jury of users who are incentivized to render the correct decision....

Bitcoin – the bellwether for the meteoric rise in the value of cryptocurrency – was supposed to be the gold of the 21st century gold rush. It’s still worth about $11,000 a coin, but down about 7 percent from last week. Could the theft of $400 million in cryptocurrency from another exchange have anything to do with it? Yes or no, wasn’t the value of cryptocurrency built on the idea that it was secure?...

If you know someone who’s a blogger, and you surely do, then you also know someone who’s at risk of certain kinds of legal threats. You might have a blog, or perhaps a friend from law school does, or your cousin’s girlfriend posts regularly online. There’s also a good chance that at least one of your clients is a blogger, either professionally or just for fun. Even when it’s not done for profit, blogging is often met with legal threats; some are real, while others are just empty threats disguised as legal claims....

Order Vacating Maritime Attachment Vacated In Alphamate Commodity GMBH v. CHS Europe SA, No. 09-30804, plaintiff’s appeal from the district court’s order vacating a maritime attachment, the court vacated the order where the district court lacked maritime jurisdiction over the case because the parties’ contracts for sales of grain were not wholly maritime, nor were the demurrage and detention charges suffered by plaintiff severable from the alleged breaches of their sales contracts....

The more things change, the more it costs to practice law in the First Circuit Court of Appeals. The U.S. Judicial Conference approved amendments to the Court of Appeals Miscellaneous Fee Schedule in September. Those amendments included a nationwide increase in the attorney admission fee from $150 to $176. The new fee is in addition to the $50.00 local admission fee set by Local Rule 46.0(a)(1), bringing your attorney admission fee grand total to $226....

Does your company ask customers for their ZIP code? If so, you might want to take a look at the practice and consider whether it is worth the risk. The Supreme Court of California just ruled that it is a violation of state law to collect ZIP codes from customers. The court ruled that Williams Sonoma violated the Song-Beverly Credit Card Act of 1971. Under the Act, California merchants cannot record “personal identification information....

Michael Cohen wasn’t squeamish in his testimony against President Trump; the former attorney dragged the skeletons out of the closet and stomped on them. If there were any more dead bodies in the Trump Organization, it would be a cemetery. But for lawyers who even think about turning on their own clients, here’s another question: When your legal career is over, should you burn it down? Here’s why the answer might be yes:...

Thanks to lobbying by totally disinterested third parties like Comcast and Verizon, 20 states have laws on the books prohibiting municipalities from creating municipal broadband or wireless Internet services (“Wi-Fi”). Effectively, under these laws, the cities themselves can’t build Internet infrastructure; they have to obtain it through a private company. But at least seven cities and counties in Colorado, reports Ars Technica, are defying state law and approving the installation of public broadband Internet and wireless....

Facebook, like Google, continues to add to its list of services – Facebook wants to be our everything. And this week news broke that Facebook is weeks away from getting e-wallet approval in Ireland. Is the U.S. next? And as a California anti-theft kill switch bill gets debated, mobile phone manufacturers take a preemptive stand. But is it enough to prevent theft? Facebook has made attempts at becoming a digital currency provider with Facebook Credits and Facebook Gifts, and its latest attempt is an e-wallet, reports CNET....

FindLaw columnist Eric Sinrod writes regularly in this section on legal developments surrounding technology and the Internet. Perhaps concerned about the potential for further iterations of anti-piracy laws, Rep. Darrell Issa (R-California) has proposed on Reddit legislation called the Internet American Moratorium Act (IAMA). The IAMA would seek to put an end to further Internet legislation for two years. Indeed, part of the bill reads as follows: “It is resolved in the House of Representatives and Senate that they shall not pass any new legislation for a period of 2 years from the date of enactment of this Act that would require individuals or corporations engaged in activities on the Internet to meet additional requirements or activities....

For a few weeks now, 11,000 gigabytes of information stolen from Sony by as-yet unknown hackers have been floating around the Internet. The eclectic data range from private, racially tinged jokes emailed between producer Scott Rudin and Sony exec Amy Pascal about President Obama’s favorite movies, to ideas for ludicrous sequels (like a “21 Jump Street”/“Men in Black” crossover), to whole copies of finished, but unreleased, films. Well, Sony’s pretty sick of hearing about it....

There’s a thin line between incentivizing and penalizing, and though the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has yet to say it, it seems to be targeting companies that are employing the latter as a motivating tactic to get employees to participate in wellness programs. Today’s defendant? Honeywell International Inc., the largest company sued so far by the EEOC over wellness programs, and the third such company since August, Reuters reports. According to the EEOC’s complaint, Honeywell employees faced up to $4,000 in surcharges and lost contributions to healthcare coverage if they did not participate in biometric testing as part of the company’s wellness program....

For those hoping for a stunning reversal of pro-Environmental Protection Agency rulings from the Supreme Court, well, it hasn’t happened yet, and doesn’t seem like it will any time soon. Yesterday, the nation’s High Court mostly reaffirmed prior holdings that upheld the EPA’s ability to regulate greenhouse gasses, but narrowed that power just a bit, by striking down the agency’s “tailoring rule,” as an agency’s overstep into rewriting its enabling statute, the Clean Air Act....

Can social media actually help lawyers land new clients? It depends on how you use it. Thanks to personal blogs, professional blogs, and social networking, we’ve become a more “social” society while hiding behind our laptops and smartphones. (It’s an observation, not a judgment; we’re guilty, too.) On June 13, FindLaw is sponsoring Social Media: Fish Where the Fish Are, a free webcast that will take you through what you need to know about social media for law firms....

Gone are the “Mad Men”-esque days where everyone wore suits to the office. While many offices still have “dress down” or “casual” Fridays, reportedly invented by Dockers in 1992 (though possibly going back to Hewlett Packard in the 1950s, claims Business Insider), lots of offices have done away with suits and ties altogether. The modern office is as casual, or as formal, as it has to be, and what it has to be is determined by its geography, its clientele, and its size....

On March 8, 2019, across the globe, the world will be celebrating International Women’s Day. And this year is a big one for celebrating, especially for the U.S. legal community, as it has continued to make history. Not only did the youngest woman Congressperson get elected, women made massive strides in securing elected positions on the national, state, and local levels. And that’s just part of the larger global trend of women making big strides towards equality, such as women in Saudi Arabia finally winning the right to drive legally....

Texas Planned Parenthood clinics will be short on money while federal courts debate the constitutionality of a state law that cuts funding to the program. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals Judge Jerry Smith – currently the judicial branch’s most famous proponent of judicial review – stayed an injunction this week that would have restored Planned Parenthood funding, reports The Austin Chronicle. Judge Smith has given Planned Parenthood until 5 p.m. CST on Tuesday to file an opposition brief to the state’s appeal....