Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Fascinating Account of Baboon Mores (or Memes!)

Posted on April 13, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

The NYT has a fascinating article on Baboon mores, No Time for Bullies: Baboons Retool Their Culture. When a freak illness killed off the most dominant and aggressive males, the tone of the whole troop became, well, kindler and gentler. Amazingly as new males joined the troop they got socialized into the dominant culture. Two generations after the die-off, the troop was still operating on a lower stress, higher happiness level.

The implications for faculty politics are left as an exercise for the reader.

Posted in Science/Medicine | 1 Comment

National ID Card Issues in a Nutshell

Posted on April 13, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Here's a story that implicates a vast number of the isses about national ID cards all in one debate. Florida's own Gov. Bush lobbies for drug-tracking database.

The stated goals for this propsal are pretty laudable: to crack down on prescription drug abuse, e.g. the Rush-style doctor shopping.

The actual details of the proposal make it clear that the project has no chance of achieving its stated goals, since participation by pharmacists and doctors will be optional. If you are a pill mill, you won't play. Plus, it won't provide answers in real time, and will use old data, so it won't be very effective in the best of circumstances. (Sounds pretty boondoggle-like … these are solved problems.)

No one knows what it will cost or how to pay for it.

The proponents are trying to push it through the legislature in a rush.

So far, this is all pretty standard for all too many ID card proposals.

Bonus Florida angle: if the proposal does make it through the legislature, it will be open to attack on the grounds that the legislature is now functus officio.

Posted in ID Cards and Identification | Comments Off on National ID Card Issues in a Nutshell

More On Privacy and Court Records

Posted on April 13, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Just a few semi-random notes from the meeting I'm attending in Tampa on privacy and court records.

  • Florida's open records law doesn't apply to judicial committees. Thus, although the meetings are open to the public and there's even a court reporter here writing down everything said during the two days (hired by a private law firm for its own benefit; I guess it's cheaper than sending a lawyer), groups of us are allowed to dine together socially without violating the law. Executive branch committees can't do that in Florida without violating the Open Meetings laws. Alas, it was raining last night so a group of us dined in the hotel. Good food, but no way the state's per diem will cover the bill.
  • The Committee has an impressive amount of expertise. Many of the members are veterans not just of the bench and of judicial administration reforms but of several previous court committees on high tech subjects. One thing that I can’t help noticing, however, is how the dominant presentational style is North or Central Florida, rather than the South Florida I'm used to. That means people are frequently soft-spoken, vaguely Southern, almost always over-modest. Even the judges are remarkably kind and pleasant, which is not inevitable in my experience (is this a side-effect of an elected bench? Or just smart selecting by the committee organizers?).
  • One of the speakers, Susan Larson, pointed us to a comprehensive web site she maintains on Public Access to Court Records, which looks like a treasure trove of material about what other jurisdictions are doing.
  • I am not very impressed with the abilities of many of Florida's politicians. I am impressed with the quality of the state (not local!) bureaucracy. My dealings with people in the Secretary of State's office a few years ago on digital signature matters was a happy surprise. The people from the Supreme Court Clerk's office are even more impressive.
  • The problems that the committee is charged with solving are even more complicated than I feared, especially given the thicket of relevant federal and Florida constitutional provisions (and separation of powers issuess…), statutes, rules of court, and issues of relations between courts and regional court clerks (who are separately elected and powerful local officials).
Posted in Law: Privacy, Talks & Conferences | Comments Off on More On Privacy and Court Records

Cover-Up Mode

Posted on April 13, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

Orcinus summarizes recent developments on other briefings to GW Bush besides the infamous smoking memo. Most interesting to me is the stuff at the end, discussing how the administration is abusing the classification procedures. The national interest certainly may be damaged by the release of sensitive information about the content of a briefing. But once the info is out, how is the national (as opposed to political) interest hurt by releasing the names of the recipients of a memo?

Posted in Politics: US: GW Bush Scandals | Comments Off on Cover-Up Mode

Excellent Summary of Digital Cops Conference

Posted on April 13, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

James Grimmelmann at Law Meme delivers an excellent Report on last month's 'Digital Cops in a Virtual Environment' Conference.

Posted in Talks & Conferences | Comments Off on Excellent Summary of Digital Cops Conference

An Example of the Fruits of Judicial Review

Posted on April 12, 2004 by Michael Froomkin

As the date for oral argument in front of the US Supreme Court approaches, the Pentagon underakes a PR offensive, and allows (carefully controlled) information to come out about the conditions at Guuantanamo. The Miami Herald gets the first exclusive.

U.S. military opens doors, sheds light on Cuba camp: For the first time since terrorism suspects were brought to the base two years ago, authorities in recent weeks opened the door to rooms used for interrogations, provided limited information on efforts to gather intelligence from prisoners and showed off a courtroom where military tribunals likely will be conducted.

They also allowed some photographs of restricted areas and permitted interviews with interrogators and others who deal with the prisoners.

The new access comes as attorneys for the families of 16 captives are seeking access to federal courts to challenge their indefinite detention. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on April 20.

Note what's not in the article: information about suicide attempts, self-injury, or much about the conditions outside of Camp Echo — which is small, and is the luxury wing of the camp. Whatever its skills at nation building, the Pentagon remains champs at lobbying and PR.

Posted in Guantanamo | 1 Comment