Edward Snowden, a former contractor for the NSA who leaked the NSA Power Point slides to the Washington Post and The Guardian, has been very open with the media regarding his background, education, work history and motives surrounding his leaking...
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The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 permits electronic and physical monitoring to assess threats and maintain US safety. FISA created the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC), which grants surveillance warrants. Concerned with authorization of wiretaps against Americans, a...
Since Edward Snowden leaked confidential documents to British newspaper The Guardian in June 2013, people have been asking questions relating to the US government's surveillance of a wide swath of the population. PRISM, authorized by the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance...
In the early 20th century, the US military faced a new challenge with the increased use of radio technology for military operations. Cryptology, the study of codes and how to crack them, emerged as an important tool for military intelligence....
Guantanamo Bay was leased to the US by Cuba on February 23, 1903, as part of the Cuban-American Treaty. Although the US had maintained a military presence at Guantanamo Bay since the Spanish-American War, the perpetual lease has allowed the...
The right to vote has been a contentious issue in the US since the inception of the country. There was no specific right to vote or qualifications to vote drafted into the US Constitution. Each state was left to develop...
The financing of national and state elections has been a political topic in the US since the early nineteenth century. In 1828, then-candidate for the US presidency Andrew Jackson was one of the first politicians to create a campaign committee...
This feature has been updated, as of June 6, 2014. Please refer to State Bans on Affirmative Action for the most recent information. On June 4, 1965, US President Lyndon B. Johnson delivered a commencement address at Howard University in...
While the Syrian conflict began during the Arab Spring of 2011, it was fueled by decades of political oppression. On March 6, 2011, schoolchildren, inspired by uprisings in Egypt and Libya, graffitied anti-Bashir al-Assad messages on several buildings in Daraa....
The heated debate over same-sex marriage is one of the most polarizing issues currently facing the American legal community. It is a controversy being played out in every branch of the federal government, from the floor of the US Senate...
