Author Archives: Michael Froomkin

Navy VA Hospital Accused of Pervasive Religious Bias

Posted on May 15, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

The Navy Times has an odd and disturbing report, Navy vet: Chaplains tried converting me:

Navy veteran David Miller said that when he checked into the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Iowa City, he didn't realize he would get a hard sell for Christian fundamentalism along with treatment for his kidney stones.

Miller, 46, an Orthodox Jew, said he was repeatedly proselytized by hospital chaplains and staff in attempts to convert him to Christianity during three hospitalizations over the past two years.

He said he went hungry each time because the hospital wouldn't serve him kosher food, and the staff refused to contact his rabbi, who could have brought him something to eat.

…

He described the Iowa City facility as an institution permeated by government sponsorship of fundamentalist Christianity and unconstitutional discrimination against Jews.

There have been a disturbing number of stories during this administration of religious zealotry gone wild in the Army (Lt. Gen. Boykin), Air Force (the the Air Force Academy scandal), and now the Navy version. I can't recall hearing nearly as much of this in any prior administration.

Posted in Law: Constitutional Law | 4 Comments

Gattica in the Courtroom

Posted on May 15, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Here's an interesting privacy case from the Washington state Supreme Court: State v. Athan. There's a majority opinion, a a concurrence, a dissent and another dissent. (Warning: links are only good for 90 days.)

Here's the news summary, Licking an envelope gives up privacy right to saliva

Police who obtained a murder suspect's DNA by tricking him into licking an envelope didn't violate any privacy laws, even though the letter was from a fake law firm, the [Washington] state Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

In a 6-3 ruling, the court held there is no state or federal privacy interest in the spit used to seal a person's mail.

Licking an envelope, the majority wrote, is “analogous to a person spitting on the sidewalk or leaving a cigarette butt in an ashtray.”

It also didn't matter that Seattle detectives got the DNA sample by posing as lawyers preparing a class-action lawsuit.

Even though pretending to be a lawyer is illegal under state law, police didn't violate the suspect's rights and didn't gather any privileged or confidential information, the court held.

The result is partly explained by the grisly facts:

The decision upholds the second-degree murder conviction of John Athan, a Palisades Park, N.J., man found to have killed a 13-year-old girl in Seattle in 1982, when he was 14.

The girl's murder went unsolved for years, until cold-case detectives fooled Athan into licking the envelope and sending it back to police.

Even so, the court seems to have given up a number of hostages to fortune:

In Thursday's ruling, the court's majority said collecting Athan's saliva from the envelope did not raise the same privacy concerns as would forced collections of blood or urine.

“There is no subjective expectation of privacy in discarded genetic material just as there is no subjective expectation of privacy in fingerprints or footprints left in a public place,” the court ruled.

Athan also wasn't protected by attorney-client privilege in the case because the saliva used to seal the envelope is not an actual “communication,” the court said.

Although Athan believed he was sending the letter to a lawyer, detectives were allowed to open the mail because their names were listed – albeit as fake attorneys – on the original letter, the court ruled.

We'll be seeing more and more issues like this.

Posted in Law: Privacy | Comments Off on Gattica in the Courtroom

FDL Will Cover Padilla Trial

Posted on May 14, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Firedoglake, the good people who did such a great job of covering the Scooter Libby trial, have brought a special guest on board to cover the Padilla trial which started today here in Miami: Introducing … Lew Koch! (Koch has been called “an old-fashioned ass-kicking Chicago investigative reporter, trained by the same guys who trained Seymour Hersh.”)

Mr. Koch will have to deal with things like unwritten rules barring the press from asking questions — even when court is not in session! (Just to be clear – this rule barring questions near the courtroom might well be reasonable under the circumstances, in order to protect the jury from overhearing something. But it would, I think, need to be formally ordered by the judge in writing or orally in open court, in order to be valid.)

Another good source for links to information is of course the judicious Southern District of Florida blog. Personally, I'm not going to try to blog every twist and turn, just the most interesting bits: I have exams to grade.

Posted in Padilla | Comments Off on FDL Will Cover Padilla Trial

Antidisestablishmentarianism at the Department of Defense

Posted on May 14, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

It seems that the 'the USA is a Christian nation' types have been helping the Defense Dept. write textbooks for Junior Reserve Officers Training Corps (JROTC). So at least argues Talk To Action | Reclaiming Citizenship, History, and Faith, The Department of Defense — Bringing Historical Revisionism to a High School Near You.

It sounds convincing, although I haven't sought to do original research to check it out. [Update: I should add that the part about Jefferson is consistent with what I've read elsewhere — it's the DoD part that I'm taking on faith.]

(And, yes, I know that “antidisestablishmentarianism” originally referred to the reaction against British proposals to disestablish the Church of England, not to the disestablishment of the churches in colonial and post-revolutionary America, but I'm assured it now has a more general meaning also.)

Posted in Law: Constitutional Law | Comments Off on Antidisestablishmentarianism at the Department of Defense

Waldmann’s Rules

Posted on May 14, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

Robert's Stochastic thoughts:

He who knows and knows that he knows is a Teacher. Learn from him.
He who knows not and knows that he knows not is a student. Teach him.
He who knows not and knows not that he knows not is a menace. Avoid him.
He who knows and knows not that he knows is our Attorney General. Impeach him.

Posted in Politics: US: GW Bush Scandals | Comments Off on Waldmann’s Rules

Google Patents Method to Do Real-Time Psych Profiling of Online Gamers

Posted on May 14, 2007 by Michael Froomkin

The Guardian reports Google may use games to analyse net users:

Internet giant Google has drawn up plans to compile psychological profiles of millions of web users by covertly monitoring the way they play online games.

The company thinks it can glean information about an individual's preferences and personality type by tracking their online behaviour, which could then be sold to advertisers. Details such as whether a person is more likely to be aggressive, hostile or dishonest could be obtained and stored for future use, it says.

The move is intended to customise adverts shown to players of online video games by tailoring them to specific tastes and interests. But it has worried privacy campaigners, who said the implications of compiling and storing such detailed information were “alarming”.

…

The plans are detailed in a patent filed by Google in Europe and the US last month. It says people playing online role playing games such as Second Life and World of Warcraft would be particularly good to target, because they interact with other players and make decisions that probably reflect their behaviour in real life.

The patent says: “User dialogue (eg from role playing games, simulation games, etc) may be used to characterise the user (eg literate, profane, blunt or polite, quiet etc). Also, user play may be used to characterise the user (eg cautious, risk-taker, aggressive, non-confrontational, stealthy, honest, cooperative, uncooperative, etc).”

The information could be used to make adverts that appear inside the game more “relevant to the user”, Google says.

Players who spend a lot of time exploring “may be interested in vacations, so the system may show ads for vacations”. And those who spend more time talking to other characters will see adverts for mobile phones.

The article doesn't really explain, however, exactly how Google plans to collect the information. Is it real-time, via the toolbar? Would the info be provided by the game or by the desktop?

Meanwhile, however, Google assures us that it's all theoretical.

When contacted by the Guardian, Google said it did not have any plans to roll out the technology in the near future, and that it was just one of a large number of patents that it has filed in recent months. A spokesman said: “Google registers different patents irrespective of whether we actually intend to use them.”

Sure, sure, nothing to worry about…

Posted in Virtual Worlds | Comments Off on Google Patents Method to Do Real-Time Psych Profiling of Online Gamers