— Zoe Tillman (@ZoeTillman) July 21, 2015
Facebook flap: In another privacy case, a New York state appeals court has ruled Facebook must hand over users’ information to prosecutors. Facebook cannot challenge search warrants New York prosecutors used to get information from its site on hundreds of users suspected of Social Security fraud,” the state appeals court said, “in a decision likely making it harder for New Yorkers to keep their digital lives private,” Reuters reports. The warrants, which applied to 381 users’ photos, private messages and other information, could only be challenged by individuals after prosecutors gathered evidence, the First Judicial Department Supreme Court of New York ruled. Google and Microsoft backed Facebook, arguing that the case could set a bad precedent and give prosecutors too much access to digital information.
Deal: “Federal regulators are preparing to approve AT&T’s $49 billion bid to purchase DirecTV, a mega deal that joins the country’s largest satellite TV firm with the second-biggest provider of cellular service,” The Washington Post reports. The New York Times reports here on the approval. Read the Justice Department’s statement here.
Strike-out: The Barry Bonds criminal case is officially, after many years, over. The U.S. Department of Justice has decided not to take the obstruction prosecution to the U.S. Supreme Court, the San Jose Mercury News reports. The Los Angeles Times has more here, and Reuters here. In April, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit struck down Bonds’ conviction.
Landmark courts: Three Southern courthouses were named National Historical Landmarks this week because of their ties to major civil rights rulings, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. The Fifth Circuit building in New Orleans is among those recognized by the National Park Service. The Fifth Circuit delivered rulings that strengthened the Civil Rights movement in the years following the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education ruling unraveled Jim Crow laws across the South. The Eleventh Circuit courthouse in Atlanta and the Robert M. Johnson Jr. Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse in Montgomery, Alabama, are the other two buildings that received landmark designation.
Solitary fight: For the first time in generations, American leaders are questioning the practice of solitary confinement of federal prisoners. President Obama last week ordered a Justice Department review of solitary confinement as Congress and more than a dozen states consider limits on it, the New York Times reports. Last month, Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy criticized the practice as unconstitutional. In his NAACP convention speech last week, Obama criticized the logic and safety of solitary confinement: “Do we really think it makes sense to lock so many people alone in tiny cells for 23 hours a day, sometimes for months or even years at a time? That is not going to make us safer. That’s not going to make us stronger. And if those individuals are ultimately released, how are they ever going to adapt? It’s not smart.”
