Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Jake Snow @snowjake.bsky.social · 2d

The legendary parking pass for Nobel Laureates is both immense and hilarious.

Jake Snow @snowjake.bsky.social · 2d

Today, Prof. John Clarke at UC Berkeley (who is, full disclosure, my father-in-law) won the Nobel Prize in Physics!

He also spoke out about how the Trump administration's cuts would "cripple science" and take a decade to rebuild.

The Associated Press @apnews.com · 3d

BREAKING: John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret and John M. Martinis win the Nobel Prize in Physics for discoveries in quantum mechanics.

Nobel Prize for physics goes to 3 scientists for discoveries in quantum mechanical tunneling

John Clarke, Michel H. Devoret, and John M. Martinis have won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their research into quantum mechanical tunneling.

bit.ly

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ACLU @aclu.org · 15d

DHS subpoenaed Meta for information about an account that posts names and images of the ICE agents raiding our communities, but @aclu-norcal.bsky.social and advocates are pushing back.

Recording federal agents while on duty in public — and sharing that information — is our First Amendment right.

The Feds Want to Unmask Instagram Accounts That Identified Immigration Agents

StopICE.net filed a motion to quash a subpoena about an Instagram video that identified a Border Patrol agent.

theintercept.com

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ACLU of Northern California @aclu-norcal.bsky.social · Sep 5

A HUGE WIN!

“From Day 1, Secretary Noem acted with a sole intent of stripping TPS holders of their legal status whether or not there was a basis for it. This decision recognizes the illegality of that. As a result, TPS protections should go back into effect immediately.”
— Emi MacLean, ACLU NorCal

Judge halts Trump officials from ending special status for Venezuelans, Haitians

The decision to block the Trump administration from ending TPS for the migrants could shield hundreds of thousands of people from possible deportation.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Mohammad Tajsar @mtajsar.bsky.social · Aug 2

"This decision is further confirmation that the administration's paramilitary invasion of Los Angeles violated the Constitution and caused irreparable injury across the region."

More on our win from this evening: www.aclusocal.org/en/press-rel...

Ninth Circuit Court Denies Stay in L.A. Raids Case

Decision leaves temporary order in place, barring DHS from unlawful stop practices

www.aclusocal.org

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Jake Snow @snowjake.bsky.social · Jul 3

"To them, if you are brown, they will hunt you down. To them, if you have dark skin, they will take you in." @mtajsar.bsky.social

laist.com/news/politic...

Federal immigration arrests in SoCal are violating constitutional rights, new lawsuit argues

Civil rights groups allege feds have targeted people based on skin color and blocked detainees from seeing lawyers. Officials say actions have been lawful and “highly targeted.”

laist.com

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Matt Cagle @mattcagle.bsky.social · Jun 25

This is great — here in California, this change will help prevent out-of-state agencies and ICE from tracking drivers, including abortion-seekers and immigrants.

Flock points to a CA law that prohibits local/state agencies from sharing this info across state lines. A thread on how that came to be🧵

Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · Jun 25

New from 404 Media: Flock has cut off cameras in California, Illinois, and Virginia from national lookups after our investigations and others based on our reporting. Comes after we revealed cops doing lookups for ICE and an abortion case. Massive changes to this tech www.404media.co/flock-remove...

Flock Removes States From National Lookup Tool After ICE and Abortion Searches Revealed

Following 404 Media’s reporting and in light of new legislation, automatic license plate reader (ALPR) company Flock has stopped agencies reaching into cameras in California, Illinois, and Virginia.

www.404media.co

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Jake Snow @snowjake.bsky.social · Jun 6

A fist rapidly made contact with a face, raising punching concerns.

Apoorva Mandavilli @apoorvanyt.bsky.social · Jun 6

SCOOP: The CDC is planning to move information on cases of diseases like measles and polio to a data system managed by Palantir, raising concerns about patient privacy.

www.nytimes.com/2025/06/06/h...

Palantir’s Collection of Disease Data at C.D.C. Stirs Privacy Concerns

www.nytimes.com

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Matt Cagle @mattcagle.bsky.social · Jun 5

NEW lawsuit: Sonoma County is operating a runaway warrantless drone surveillance program that regularly invades residents' privacy, interrupts personal lives, and instills dread in those targeted. This violates the CA Constitution and we're taking the County to court. www.aclunc.org/news/aclu-su...

ACLU Sues Sonoma County over Code Enforcement’s Runaway Drone Spying Program | ACLU of Northern CA

www.aclunc.org

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Matt Cagle @mattcagle.bsky.social · May 20

Face surveillance isn't just incompatible with a healthy democracy, it's also a threat to public safety, here made worse by an unaccountable watch list, a seeming disregard to false match risks, and camera feeds accessible to an authoritarian federal government
www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...

Police secretly monitored New Orleans with facial recognition cameras

Following records requests from The Post, officials paused the first known, widespread live facial recognition program used by police in the United States.

www.washingtonpost.com

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Jake Snow @snowjake.bsky.social · May 15

Impeccable vibe

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ACLU @aclu.org · May 9

Today, our client Rümeysa Öztürk was released on bail from ICE detention in Louisiana, and she will return to New England to continue her studies.

📸 Giancarlo D’Agostaro

Two woman walking and embracing each other in front of an ICE detention center. The woman on the left is wearing a black dress and heels. The woman on the right is smiling and wearing a white hijab, glasses, and a pink garment. Members of the press are in the background.

Two women standing, smiling, and embracing each other with grass, water, and the sky in the background. The woman on the left is wearing a white hijab, glasses, and a pink garment. The woman on the right is wearing a black dress.

Two woman stand next to each other and hold onto one another. The woman on the left is wearing a black dress. The woman on the right is smiling and wearing a white hijab, glasses, and a pink garment. In the background is the fence of an ICE detention center.

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Jameel Jaffer @jameeljaffer.bsky.social · May 6

A major victory against the world’s most notorious monger of malicious spyware.

John Scott-Railton @jsrailton.bsky.social · May 6

BREAKING: jury awards massive $167 million in punitive damages against spyware company NSO Group.

Precedent-setting win against notorious #Pegasus spyware maker.

Very consequential for victims to see this.

Congratulations to #WhatsApp on sticking this case through since 2019. Some thoughts 1/

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ACLU of Northern California @aclu-norcal.bsky.social · Apr 29

BREAKING: In a major civil rights victory, a federal court today issued a preliminary injunction barring Border Patrol from using stop-and-arrest practices that violate federal law and the U.S. Constitution.

They can’t target people just because they’re Brown, or day laborers, or farm workers.

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Jake Snow @snowjake.bsky.social · Apr 29

They did it, and are legends.

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Jake Snow @snowjake.bsky.social · Apr 29

There is a time and a place for "et al." and this is neither the time nor the place.

Roger Parloff @rparloff.bsky.social · Apr 29

In the law firm executive order cases, DOJ takes the position that an injunction barring implementation will only be enforceable against the govt agencies named in the complaint. So Perkins Coie just amended its complaint to name all the relevant fed agencies. The case caption is now 40 pages long.

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ACLU @aclu.org · Apr 25

NEW: We just filed an amicus brief urging the California Supreme Court to side with a mother appealing her wrongful listing on the child abuse registry.

Parents must have a meaningful opportunity to challenge unjust rulings.

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Jake Snow @snowjake.bsky.social · Apr 25

Folks this isn't complicated.

AI regulations are sensibly a part of privacy law. Privacy gives people control over the use of information about them. When a computer deprives people of a job or a loan, that's a privacy harm.

www.kqed.org/news/1203751...

Newsom Signals to California Privacy Watchdog That He’s on Big Tech’s Side on AI Regulation | KQED

In an unusual letter to the California Privacy Protection Agency’s board, Gov. Gavin Newsom is urging the regulators to dial back proposed regulations on automated decision-making technology.

www.kqed.org

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Rachael Myrow @rachaelmyrow.bsky.social · Apr 25

“It’s unfortunate to see a lot of the industry talking points coming out of a letter from the governor,” said @snowjake.bsky.social, a technology and civil liberties attorney at the @aclu-norcal.bsky.social. www.kqed.org/news/1203751... via @kqednews.kqed.org

Newsom Signals to California Privacy Watchdog That He’s on Big Tech’s Side on AI Regulation | KQED

In an unusual letter to the California Privacy Protection Agency’s board, Gov. Gavin Newsom is urging the regulators to dial back proposed regulations on automated decision-making technology.

www.kqed.org

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ACLU of Massachusetts @aclum.bsky.social · Apr 17

Rümeysa Öztürk has not been accused of any crime. Plainclothes ICE agents grabbed her off the street, arrested, and detained her.

For nearly 24 hours, Ms. Öztürk’s attorney was unable to locate her as ICE quickly moved her in three different states.

We won’t stop fighting to bring Rümeysa home.

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Alvaro M. Bedoya @bedoyausa.bsky.social · Mar 27

Commissioner Slaughter and I just sued to clarify that we're still FTC commissioners. But this is bigger than us. This is about economic stability. If the President can break a 90-year-old Supreme Court ruling to fire us for no reason, he can do it to the Fed, the FDIC and SEC.

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Matt Cagle @mattcagle.bsky.social · Mar 25

Let’s be clear about what’s happening here: the trillion dollar company behind Facebook and Instagram is effectively outsourcing the labor of combatting platform abuse to overworked and under-resourced school employees.

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · Mar 25

“After a district joins the new Schools Partnership program, any post or account they flag for potentially violating Instagram’s rules will ‘be automatically prioritized for review.’”

Instagram is giving schools a faster way to get students’ posts taken down

Instagram is adding another child safety-focused feature.

www.theverge.com

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Jake Snow @snowjake.bsky.social · Mar 25

My piece detailing the parallels. www.techpolicy.press/big-tech-is-...

Big Tech is Trying to Burn Privacy to the Ground–And They’re Using Big Tobacco’s Strategy to Do It | TechPolicy.Press

Jake Snow is a senior staff attorney at the ACLU of Northern California.

www.techpolicy.press

Jake Snow @snowjake.bsky.social · Mar 25

Weak state laws rolling up to federal preemption. It's the big tobacco playbook all over again.

www.nytimes.com/2025/03/24/t...

Emboldened by Trump, A.I. Companies Lobby for Fewer Rules

After the president made A.I. dominance a top priority, tech companies changed course from a meeker approach under the Biden administration.

www.nytimes.com

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Alvaro M. Bedoya @bedoyausa.bsky.social · Mar 19

The president is trying to illegally fire me. Who does this help? Does it help you? Or does it help the billionaires over the president’s shoulder at the inauguration?

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