In The News

Spiegel: EU Mulls Funding Cuts for Eastern Europe

Markus Becker, Peter Müller, Christoph Schult and Jan Puhl April 10, 2018
Europe’s largest and most powerful economies maintain that values embracing human rights and the rule of law have enhanced European prosperity. So it’s understandable that the Germany, France and others do not want to subsidize Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and other states that skirt the rule of law, refuse to support refugees and engage in corruption enriching a few individuals in power rather than...

NBC: Old Law May Stall Trump Bid to Undo Obama Regulations

Suzy Khimm March 6, 2018
US courts are providing checks, balances and brakes on the Trump administration’s agenda to reverse policies of previous presidents. “In recent weeks, federal judges have blocked the administration's attempts to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program (DACA), postpone a rule giving low-income families broader access to housing in wealthier neighborhoods, and delay an...

Korea Herald: #MeToo Movement Rejects South Korea’s Defamation Law

Claire Lee March 1, 2018
Uncivil behavior flourishes when governments impose defamation laws that protect reputations over public declarations of truth. The global “MeToo movement underscores the problems with South Korea’s defamation law, reports Claire Lee for the Korea Herald. “Women’s activists and some lawmakers criticized the defamation law as one of the biggest challenges that sexual violence victims here face,”...

Lawfare: Mueller’s Indictment of Russian Hackers Highlights Stakes of Microsoft Case

Andrew Keane Woods February 20, 2018
Since the 9/11 attacks on New York City and Washington, DC, in 2001, the United States developed sophisticated surveillance techniques. Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russians and three Russian organizations for interfering in the 2016 presidential elections, describing elaborate efforts to avoid detection including virtual private networks and US travel to set up servers and accounts...

National Review: When Border Searches Become Unreasonable

Kyle Sammin February 12, 2018
The United States ranks third in the world for total land area after Russia and China. US citizens, legal residents and tourists traveling near coasts or land borders can be stopped and asked to prove legal status. US Customs and Border Protection], using a 1946 law, “claims the right to search people and places without a warrant if the purpose of the search is to find illegal aliens and the...

The Toronto Star: Trump Is Showdown With His FBI

Daniel Dale February 2, 2018
US intelligence agencies report that Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election and warn about similar interference in November’s congressional elections. Key Republicans and US President Donald Trump lash out at the investigators, with attacks that could undermine trust in the nation’s Federal Bureau of Investigation and other institutions. “The until-recently-unusual spectre of the ‘...

The New Yorker: When Deportation Is a Death Sentence

Sarah Stillman January 12, 2018
The Global Migration Project at Columbia University has documented the experiences of US deportees forced to return to their home nations over the past decade: A young man mistakenly deported died in a prison fire; gangs often assume returnees have money and murdered a father and fractured the skull of a 13-year-old; a cartel kidnapped a former police woman. Sarah Stillman, the project’s director...