Lawmakers are at odds over legislation that allows the U.S. government to surveil noncitizens overseas without a warrant. Set to expire last December, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) specifically authorizes the National Security Agency (NSA) to collect communications of foreigners who are located outside the U.S. and who have been deemed intelligence targets. Currently, the NSA does not have to issue warrants to collect the information from American companies such as AT&T when surveiling noncitizens. Critics of the legislation argue that it threatens the civil liberties of Americans given that some of the communications collected could…

To stem the growing opioid crisis, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in 2018 temporarily placed the synthetic opioid fentanyl and its variants in the highest legal and regulatory category, Schedule I, on par with highly addictive substances like heroin and ecstasy. In January 2020, just before that ban was set to expire, the Senate unanimously passed the Temporary Reauthorization and Study of the Emergency Scheduling of Fentanyl Analogues Act (S. 3201), which would maintain fentanyl variants’ classification as Schedule I drugs for 15 additional months, through May 2021. The bill faced more difficulty in the House, where partisan disagreements…

The Trump Administration has proposed a new rule that would ban bump stocks, devices that are used to make semiautomatic guns operate like machine guns. The shooter in the Las Vegas shooting used a bump stock. Bump stocks are banned in some States, including Delaware, Hawaii, and Florida. In December of 2018, the Department of Justice wrote that it was “… amending the regulations of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) to clarify that bump-stock-type devices—meaning “bump fire” stocks, slide-fire devices, and devices with certain similar characteristics—are “machineguns” as defined by the National Firearms Act of 1934…

On August 28, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced that the Trump Administration would lift a two-year ban on the transfer of surplus military equipment from the Pentagon to police departments across the United States. In an address to the Fraternal Order of Police in Nashville, the attorney general said that the President’s Executive Order would make it easier for police officers to protect themselves and their communities. “We will not put superficial concerns over public safety,” he said, calling the equipment — which includes grenade launchers, armored vehicles, and bayonets — “lifesaving gear.” The program — known as 1033, after…

On January 5, in a ceremony at the White House, President Obama announced a series of proposals to tighten Federal gun laws, calling them “common-sense steps to save lies and protect more of our children.” The initiative includes both legislative proposals that Congress would have to act on and executive actions that the President can take on his own. Major provisions include: Requiring more gun sellers — especially those who do business on the Internet and at gun shows — to be licensed and to conduct background checks on potential buyers. Hiring more than 230 additional FBI personnel to help…

The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 made transactions from financial companies to online gambling sites illegal, but carved out an exception for fantasy sports, classifying it as a game of skill. Since then, however, daily fantasy sports websites have exploded in popularity and are now worth billions of dollars because of a surge of investors, including national sports organizations, television networks, and team owners. Fantasy sports recently came under scrutiny after an employee of one of the sites admitted to having released confidential information. The same employee then won $350,000 in a competition on a rival site. The…

A national survey on drug use and health, conducted in 2013 by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, found that an estimated 1.9 million people in the United States suffered from substance use disorders related to prescription pain medicines and 517,000 suffered from a heroin use disorder. In the last year, Congress has held several hearings on the what is now considered to be a public health epidemic. These included: Two House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee hearings: one on April 23, titled “Combatting the Opioid Abuse Epidemic: Professional and Academic Perspectives” and one on May…

Although the immigration reform debate has been stalled in Congress for some time, a new discussion has revolved around “sanctuary cities” — generally defined as jurisdictions with policies or laws that limit the extent to which local law enforcement will assist the Federal Government on immigration matters. Currently, more than 200 State and local jurisdictions have policies that do not honor U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention requests. The sanctuary movement grew out of efforts by churches in the 1980s to provide safe havens for those fleeing violence in Central America. The logic behind sanctuary cities is that encouraging…