Open Letter to Tech Companies: Protect Your Users From Lawless DHS Subpoenas

Source: Electronic Frontier Foundation
by Mario Trujillo

“In the past year, DHS has consistently targeted people engaged in First Amendment activity. Among other things, the agency has issued subpoenas to technology companies to unmask or locate people who have documented ICE’s activities in their community, criticized the government, or attended protests. These subpoenas are unlawful, and the government knows it. When a handful of users challenged a few of them in court with the help of ACLU affiliates in Northern California and Pennsylvania, DHS withdrew them rather than waiting for a decision. But it is difficult for the average user to fight back on their own. … That is why we, joined by the ACLU of Northern California, have asked several large tech platforms to do more to protect their users …” (02/10/26)

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/02/open-letter-tech-companies-protect-your-users-lawless-dhs-subpoenas

Federal Judge Dismisses Attempt to Obtain Michigan Voter Data in Latest Rejection of DOJ

Source: US News & World Report

“A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit from the Department of Justice that sought to obtain Michigan’s voter rolls, marking the latest judicial rejection in President Donald Trump’s wide-ranging attempts to gain access to voter data from states. The Justice Department has sued at least 23 states and the District of Columbia in its effort to obtain detailed voter information. In an opinion issued Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Hala Y. Jarbou, a Trump nominee, said the laws cited by the Justice Department in its complaint, including the Civil Rights Act of 1960, do not require the disclosure of the records it sought.” (02/10/26)

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/michigan/articles/2026-02-10/federal-judge-dismisses-attempt-to-obtain-michigan-voter-data-in-latest-rejection-of-doj

Amazon’s Creepy Normalizing of the Surveillance State

Source: Coyote Blog
by Warren Meyer

“You don’t sell surveillance out of the gate with a system that tracks down a person in the neighborhood behind on taxes or child support. No, you sell it as a system to find that adorable lost dog (notice not even generic pets or certainly not cats because dogs are the new children for this generation). They can fight all the backlash by saying, ‘Oh come on, who can be against finding lost dogs?’ Then, months or years later, the terms and conditions have morphed and broader search capabilities are enabled without the user even knowing …. When it really gets scary, they are not even going to tell you about it. I do not believe this is just a marketing mistake — Ring appears to have adopted neighborhood surveillance as their core business model.” (02/10/26)

https://coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2026/02/amazons-creepy-normalizing-of-the-surveillance-state.html

Grand jury refuses to indict US pols for telling military personnel to obey the law

Source: The Hill

“A grand jury on Tuesday refused to indict a coalition of Democratic lawmakers over their participation in a controversial ‘illegal orders’ video last fall. The failed federal indictment was pursued by the office of U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Pirro, as first reported by The New York Times. The lawmakers urged military servicemembers and intelligence community personnel to defy illegal orders in a joint video statement released in November. The video followed the Trump administration’s decision to carry out deadly boat strikes in the Caribbean. … The Times reported that federal prosecutors were seeking to indict lawmakers for breaching a law forbidding interfering with the U.S. military’s loyalty, morale or discipline.” (02/10/26)

https://thehill.com/regulation/court-battles/5732714-democrats-lawmakers-illegal-orders-video-indictment-fails/

Two Universities. Two Posters. One First Amendment Problem.

Source: Foundation for Individual Rights and Education
by Amanda Nordstrom

“Public universities don’t get to pick which political viewpoints are safe to express. But administrators at two major universities are trying to do just that. At the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, administrators treated the College Republicans’ pro-ICE political message like a civil rights violation. … At Penn State, an anti-ICE poster discovered outside the student center on Jan. 29 sparked heated reactions across the ideological spectrum. When some people raised the call to identify and punish whoever created the poster, Penn State responded by condemning it and announcing that University Police and Public Safety were investigating. These incidents are two sides of the same coin: administrators using official investigations to police protected political speech, in this case, on opposing sides of the immigration debate.” (02/10/26)

https://www.thefire.org/news/two-universities-two-posters-one-first-amendment-problem