PRIVACY + SECURITY BLOG

News, Developments, and Insights

high-tech technology background with eyes on computer display

Herring v. United States, the Exclusionary Rule, and Errors in Databases

Errors in Databases

Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court decided Herring v. United States, a case examining whether the exclusionary rule should apply to a search that was based on an error in a database. In particular, due to a negligent error in a computer database indicating that there was an outstanding felony arrest warrant for Bennie […]

Lori Drew and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

Lori Drew Megan Meier Case

The Lori Drew trial is set to begin this week, and it is a travesty that this trial is even taking place. The basic facts of this case are that Drew was the mother of a teenage daughter and she created a fake MySpace profile for a fictional teen boy to befriend a classmate of […]

Teaching Edited vs. Unedited Judicial Opinions

Judicial Opinions

Over at the Volokh Conspiracy, David Post and Orin Kerr are debating Post’s experiment of having students read unedited judicial opinions in his classes. Kerr writes that the skill of locating the relevant material in a case is a skill that is learned through all types of reading. Post counters that “a critical part of […]

Megan Meier Case Update — Drew Indicted

CFAA

I’ve blogged about the Megan Meier case a while ago. This is the case where Megan Meier, a teenager, committed suicide after her online friend from Myspace suddenly started to reject her and say mean things to her. The “friend” on Myspace was actually Lori Drew, the mother of one of her classmates, and some […]

Orin Kerr on the Fourth Amendment

Police

Anybody familiar with Fourth Amendment law knows that it is utterly incoherent. In his new paper, Four Models of Fourth Amendment Protection, my colleague, Orin Kerr (GW Law School) argues that this incoherence is actually a good thing. He attempts to sort out the muddle that currently exists in Fourth Amendment law into four models. From […]