| The Right to Education |
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| Contrary to popular belief, the right to a free public education is not among those rights specifically listed in the United States Constitution. Put another way, the Constitution does not require a state to provide free public education to its residents. Instead, a right to a free public education must be enumerated in a state's constitution. Nearly every state's constitution has a provision for free public education. These states have enacted laws with the purpose of providing equal access to a quality education to all resident students.
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| Internet surveillance provision of USA PATRIOT Act |
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| A federal court has ruled that the surveillance provision of the Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001 (USA PATRIOT Act) was unconstitutionally broad. In striking down § 505, the federal judge said that while national security was of "paramount value," personal security was equal in importance. The judge held that § 505 was violative of the First Amendment because § 505's permanent ban on disclosure of the request was an impermissible "prior restraint" on free speech. Additionally, the surveillance provision violated the Constitution because it gave "unchecked powers" to obtain private information. Furthermore, it violated the Constitution's prohibitions against unreasonable searches.
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| The Freedom of Religion in Prisons |
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| The federal Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000 (RLUIPA) says in part that no government shall impose a substantial burden on the religious exercise of anyone confined to a federally-funded government institution, including prisons and jails. RLUIPA requires prisons to accommodate the religions practiced by inmates. The law allows governmental authorities to interfere with religious practices only if they can show a "compelling governmental interest." Often, prison security and discipline have been found to be sufficient reasons to restrict inmates' religious practices.
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| What is "racial profiling?" |
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| Racial profiling is defined as the targeting of individuals or groups by law enforcement officials on the basis of race, color, ethnicity, national origin, or religion, except where there is trustworthy information that links the person or the group to an identified crime or scheme. The Department of Justice's (DOJ's) racial profiling guidance permits the use of race and ethnicity in the identification of terrorists, but only to the extent permitted by federal law and the United States Constitution. The DOJ's guidance prohibits law enforcement officers from using race or ethnicity in making routine or spontaneous enforcement decisions.
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| The Right to Privacy and Screen Scrapers |
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| A "screen scraper" is a program that automatically picks up data on one page or website and copies or moves it into another. Also known as "screen grabbers," these types of software record a computer user's activities, including keystrokes, websites visited, and desktop applications used. Privacy advocates and many consumers have expressed concern that the collection and sharing of data and computer usage habits can be readily and quickly abused, without a consumer's consent or knowledge. A federal court has approached a screen scraping case by looking to the provisions of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, while a state court has looked to the law of trespass. More... |
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