First Amendment attorneys sue DHS over data obtained in border crossings News
First Amendment attorneys sue DHS over data obtained in border crossings

The Columbia University Knight First Amendment Institute on Monday filed a lawsuit [complaint, PDF] in the US District Court for the District of Columbia against the Trump administration seeking release of data on how often US citizens and others had electronic devices searched at border crossings. The lawsuit [press release], filed under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) [text], is aimed at requiring the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to reveal when it has searched US citizens and other travelers. The Knight Institute filed a FOIA request, and DHS has failed to respond up to this point. The lawsuit notes that news reports have claimed border officials seem to have targeted Muslims for electronic searches, and argues that searches have increased dramatically since President Donald Trump took office.

Trump’s immigration policies have been contentious since the beginning of his administration. In February DHS released [JURIST report] two memoranda to the department directing agency employees to implement Trump’s immigration executive orders. The orders require federal agencies to hire 15,000 more border patrol and immigration officers. Taken as a whole, Trump’s immigration policies have marked a departure [JURIST op-ed] from the policies of other US Presidents since WWII.

THIS DAY @ LAW

Ku Klux Klan founded

The US hate group known as the Ku Klux Klan was founded on December 24, 1865 in Pulaski, Tennessee as a reaction to reconstruction efforts following the Union victory in the American Civil War. The group would later become notorious for its attacks on Black Americans, being targeted by the Enforcement Act of 1871, which imposed civil and criminal liability for deprivation of constitutional rights. Read the Enforcement Act of 1871.  

Hamid Karzai born

On December 24, 1957, Hamid Karzai was born in Karz, Afghanistan. He would go on to become in 2004 his country's first elected president after the end of Taliban rule in 2001.