The nation’s largest telco Telstra tonight confirmed it had started filtering its customers’ Internet traffic for a blacklist of sites containing child pornography as compiled by international policing agency Interpol.

For when unwarranted searches go too far:

The Bill of Rights – Security Edition Card is The First Ten Amendments to the Constitution of the United States of America, printed on each side of a sturdy, playing-card-sized, pieces of metal. The cards have been redesigned with slightly rounded corners to make a card easier to carry in a wallet or pocket. The next time you travel, it’s possible that the person confiscating your mouthwash may not be familiar with the Bill of Rights.

TLJ on Justice Stevens’ Tech Influence - fascinating review; wonder what his successor will do? #scotus #law

Patents on genes associated with hereditary breast and ovarian cancer are invalid, ruled a New York federal court today. The precedent-setting ruling marks the first time a court has found patents on genes unlawful and calls into question the validity of patents now held on approximately 2,000 human genes. The ruling follows a lawsuit brought by a group of patients and scientists represented by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT), a not-for-profit organization affiliated with Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law.

Facebook update used as an alibi http://bit.ly/2xtjn6

Key Provisions in the "Affordable Health Care for America Act"- http://bit.ly/2C4klr

Most understndable healthcare doc I've found: http://bit.ly/KTvDR

Stats on free market vs "socialized" medicine; interesting how US health outcomes jump when people hit medicare

Thank you @BarackObama for leading by example http://bit.ly/3v03dT

A new low, by any account.

Besides being vile and stupid, however, the editorial was beside the point. Investor’s Business Daily would like you to believe that Obamacare would turn America into Britain — or, rather, a dystopian fantasy version of Britain. The screamers on talk radio and Fox News would have you believe that the plan is to turn America into the Soviet Union. But the truth is that the plans on the table would, roughly speaking, turn America into Switzerland — which may be occupied by lederhosen-wearing holey-cheese eaters, but wasn’t a socialist hellhole the last time I looked.

Judge Rules Telecoms Have Immunity Under Unconstitutional FISA Amendments Act

The Senate and House have voted to reauthorize the Higher Education Act and approved controversial new provisions that will require universities to provide students with access to commercial music downloading services and implement traffic filtering technologies in order to deter peer-to-peer filesharing. The bill now goes to President Bush, who is expected to sign it into law.

Prostitution laws mean-spirited, penalize women

Even by the dismal standards of what passes for a national debate on intelligence and civil liberties, last week was a really bad week.

Federal appeals court says law violates constitutional right to privacy... "Whatever one might think or believe about the use of these devices, government interference with their personal and private use violates the Constitution."

A teen suspect's snap decision to secretly record his interrogation with an MP3 player has resulted in a perjury case against a veteran detective and a plea deal for the teen.

The CIA destroyed video evidence of the coercive interrogation of al-Qaida operatives held under its secret rendition programme in order to shield agents from prosecution, it was revealed yesterday.

What is important in this case is .. the position that the United States government is taking on the issue of electronic privacy. That ...may mean that the government can read anybody's email at any time without a warrant.

Verizon Communications, the nation's second-largest telecom company, told congressional investigators that it has provided customers' telephone records to federal authorities in emergency cases without court orders hundreds of times since 2005.

Under a new law that went into effect this month, it is now a crime to refuse to turn a decryption key over to the police.

How, after decades of undeniable racial progress, did we end up with this virtual gulag of racial incarceration?

A rare look inside the C.I.A.’s secret interrogation program. - The Banality Of Dick Cheney's Evil

From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, George Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all.

Public Citizen is a national, nonprofit consumer advocacy organization founded in 1971 to represent consumer interests in Congress, the executive branch and the courts.

The F.B.I. cast a much wider net in its terrorism investigations than it has previously acknowledged by relying on telecommunications companies to analyze phone-call patterns of the associates of Americans who had come under suspicion

Responding to fear-mongering by the Bush administration, the Democrat-led Congress put its stamp of approval on the unconstitutional wiretapping of Americans.

Under pressure from the White House, Congress recently gave the National Security Agency unprecedented powers to conduct warrantless surveillance. How powerful is the NSA?