News & Commentary

The ACLU of New Hampshire is deeply saddened by the passing of Larry Finkelstein, a long time civil rights advocate and dear friend. Larry was elected to the board of the ACLU of New Hampshire in 2008 and served with distinction until 2013. We mourn his passing and offer our deepest condolences to his wife Non, his family and his friends.

Just how much are the police entitled to know about us?The battle over encryption and secure communications suggests that governments think the answer is “everything,” at least so long as investigators aren’t violating weak privacy laws. And to carry out that audacious view, policy makers around the world are fighting privacy tools that will protect us from business competitors, criminals, and government abuses.

The New Hampshire 2020 primary is still almost a year away, but state legislators are already working to disenfranchise voters. HB 1264, a law set to go into effect in July 2019, will change the definition of what it means to be a “resident” of New Hampshire, forcing people with out-of-state driver’s licenses or car registrations to switch to the state versions if they register to vote.

The First Amendment bars the government from censoring speech that it doesn’t like. That rule also goes for a private organization that takes on a government role. But when exactly is an organization considered a stand-in for the government? The Supreme Court will soon hear a case to decide.

This piece was originally published on USA Today.

This was originally published by USA Today.

This was originally published by Rolling Stone.

In recent years, the federal government has significantly ramped up its efforts to monitor people on social media. The FBI, for one, has repeatedly acknowledged that it engages in surveillance of social media posts. So it was surprising when the bureau responded to our Freedom of Information Act request on this kind of surveillance by saying that it “can neither confirm nor deny the existence of records.”

After a high-speed pursuit in South Dakota in September, a highway patrol trooper shot and wounded a man after he “ignored verbal commands” and “tackled” the trooper. One month later, the Department of Criminal Investigation cleared the trooper of any wrongdoing. Then in November, a South Dakota sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a suspect who had fled after reportedly firing at deputies during a pursuit.