Christopher Dunn

August 08, 2014 | New York Law Journal

In his Civil Rights and Civil Liberties column, Christopher Dunn writes: The role that colonial practices should play in constitutional jurisprudence has long been debated, with Justice Scalia serving as the most prominent supporter of the view that the guarantees of the Bill of Rights must be grounded in the original intentions of the "Founding Fathers." Yet, with nearly 250 years separating contemporary American society from the Declaration of Independence, the tenuousness of this position becomes increasingly evident.

By Christopher Dunn

10 minute read

June 05, 2014 | New York Law Journal

In his Civil Rights and Civil Liberties column, Christopher Dunn writes: New York's criminalization of annoying and alarming speech finally came to an end three weeks ago with a Court of Appeals ruling that is remarkable not so much for its holding that the state's aggravated harassment statute is unconstitutional as for how summarily it dispenses with the long-standing and widely used law.

By Christopher Dunn

11 minute read

April 03, 2014 | New York Law Journal

In his Civil Rights and Civil Liberties column, Christopher Dunn, the associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, writes: Parody has been a staple of political discourse from time immemorial. At its best, it can add an invaluable dimension to debate on matters of public concern, albeit at the psychic expense of the parody's target. In modern times, that expense occasionally translates into lawsuits, and the sharper the parody the spicier the legal controversy.

By Christopher Dunn

11 minute read

February 06, 2014 | New York Law Journal

In his Civil Rights and Civil Liberties column, Christopher Dunn of the New York Civil Liberties Union writes: In light of Edward Snowden's dramatic revelations about the federal government's sweeping collection of information about the phone calls we make, the emails we send, and the social media we use, the very notion of communications privacy is bordering on quaint naivete. Yet, things can always get worse, and the U.S. Supreme Court recently took two cases that threaten to do just that.

By Christopher Dunn

12 minute read

December 05, 2013 | New York Law Journal

In his Civil Rights and Civil Liberties column, Christopher Dunn, the associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, writes: From a constitutional perspective, the major tension in two cases the Supreme Court just announced it will hear is between respecting freedom of religion on the one hand and opening the door to corporate discrimination in the guise of religious conviction on the other. Given that for-profit corporations have never before been held to have First Amendment free exercise rights and given the potential consequences of such a holding, these cases bear close watching.

By Christopher Dunn

11 minute read

February 02, 2012 | New York Law Journal

In his Civil Rights and Civil Liberties column, Christopher Dunn of the New York Civil Liberties Union discusses the recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling in 'United States v. Jones,' and how it surprisingly vindicated the police's use of GPS devices on the vehicles of suspects.

By Christopher Dunn

11 minute read

February 06, 2013 | New York Law Journal

In his Civil Rights and Civil Liberties column, Christopher Dunn, the associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, writes: In three cases decided in the last eight months, the Second Circuit has started to confront fundamental questions about the contours of the Second Amendment and the critical issue of its relationship to other protections in the Bill of Rights, particularly those in the First Amendment.

By Christopher Dunn

11 minute read

August 01, 2013 | New York Law Journal

In his Civil Rights and Civil Liberties column, Christopher Dunn, associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, writes that following the Supreme Court's controversial 2008 decision that the Second Amendment confers on individuals - as opposed to state militias - a right to possess handguns, the federal courts have been awash in disputes about the boundaries of this new entitlement.

By Christopher Dunn

11 minute read

January 02, 2002 | Law.com

President Bushs order authorizing military tribunals raise fundamental constitutional questions that the U.S. Supreme Court has addressed in two cases. Those cases -- one from the Civil War and one from World War II -- indicate that the president has considerable authority to authorize military tribunals in certain circumstances but also reveal that this authority is limited and subject to judicial review.

By Christopher Dunn

7 minute read

October 03, 2013 | New York Law Journal

In his Civil Rights and Civil Liberties column, Christopher Dunn, the associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, discusses recent decisions that provide useful examples of the troubling tendency of lower courts to improperly close their proceedings.

By Christopher Dunn

11 minute read