Legal Report Resources May 2017
Free speech. U.S. police officers have the right to complain about their jobs on social media, a U.S. federal court of appeals recently ruled. The court struck down the City of Petersburg, Virginia, Police Department’s social media policy, which it said acted as a “virtual blanket prohibition on all speech critical of the government employer.”
Warrants. A U.S. judge ordered Google to comply with an FBI search warrant to provide customer emails stored outside the United States. The order is in direct conflict with a previous court ruling, which said Microsoft did not have to provide data to the FBI that was stored in Ireland.
Cybersecurity. The U.S. Department of the Treasury eased sanctions on Russia to allow cybersecurity transactions with the Russian Federal Security Service (FSS or FSB) to resume.
Cybersecurity. China enacted a ban of virtual private networks (VPNs) to close holes in its firewall, further blocking citizens’ ability to circumvent its stringent Internet restrictions.
FCPA. Las Vegas Sands Corporation agreed to pay $6.96 million in criminal penalties to resolve a U.S. federal investigation into violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) in connection with business transactions in China and Macao.
Domestic violence. The Russian Duma overwhelmingly passed legislation in a vote of 380 to 3 to decriminalize domestic violence in certain cases.
Disclosure. The U.S. Senate passed a resolution that nullifies a payments disclosure requirement instituted as part of Wall Street reform after the 2008 recession. The resolution eliminates the “Disclosure of Payments by Resource Extraction Issuers” rule that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission finalized in July 2016.
Warrants. In a split decision, the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals declined to reconsider a case that limits the ability of U.S. law enforcement to request data stored on foreign servers.
Frisking. U.S. police can justifiably frisk individuals with concealed firearms, regardless of if that individual has a permit to concealed carry, a federal appeals court ruled in an en banc decision.http://www.ca4.uscourts.gov/Opinions/Published/144902A.P.pdf
