January 2018 Legal Report Resources

​Email. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security issued a binding directive that requires all U.S. agencies to adopt email and Web security guards against phishing and spam.

Bombing. A jury convicted Ahmad Khan Rahimi on eight charges related to his execution and attempted execution of bombings in New York City on September 17, 2016, which injured more than 30 people and caused millions of dollars in property damage.

Surveillance. The U.S. government is shielded by sovereign immunity from a lawsuit claiming an FBI agent used Bureau resources to spy on his wife, a U.S. court of appeals ruled.​

Discrimination. Dash Dream Plant, Inc., will pay $110,000 and other relief to settle charges that it engaged in pregnancy discrimination when it allegedly told female workers to not get pregnant.

Crime. U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions revived a U.S. President George W. Bush era strategy to fight crime that emphasizes prosecutions of gun and gang crimes.

Hacking. The U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee approved a bill that would allow the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to create a bug bounty program.

Gender. California Governor Jerry Brown signed legislation into law that allows state residents to choose between one of three gender options on official documents.

Emails. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear a case that could require Microsoft to turn over emails stored overseas to the U.S. government.

Hacking. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to take up cases on computer hacking, leaving in place a lower court ruling that found that employees with legitimate access to employer systems cannot grant authorization to third parties to use them—only the computer system owner can do that.