Law

National

After SCOTUS DNA Ruling, What Changes For Police?

1:54pm June 17, 2013

The Supreme Court ruled in June that police can routinely take DNA samples from people who are arrested for comparison against a national database. The decision raises major questions about how law enforcement and criminal justice processes will change.

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Protesters gather outside the U.S. Capitol on Thursday to rally against the National Security Agency's recently detailed surveillance programs.

National

Privacy Past And Present: A Saga Of American Ambivalence

6:17pm June 16, 2013

by NPR Staff

American privacy concerns go back as far as the country's origins. Today, in the wake of major revelations about the scope of the National Security Agency's surveillance, polls show that feelings are still mixed.

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Will The Court's Gene Ruling Stifle Bio Innovation?

4:40pm June 15, 2013

Weekend Edition Saturday Host Scott Simon talks with bioethicist Arthur Caplan of New York University about Thursday's Supreme Court ruling that isolated human genes may not be patented — and the implications for that ruling.

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Human Genes Not Patentable, Supreme Court Says

4:13pm June 14, 2013

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this week that the mere act of isolating a DNA sequence does not make human genes patentable. Mary-Claire King, who helped discover the breast cancer gene at the center of the court dispute, discusses the ruling and its implications for genetics.

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Unpaid No More: Interns Win Major Court Battle

7:36pm June 13, 2013

by Tovia Smith

A federal ruling against a major movie studio's use of unpaid interns could have a wide impact on uncompensated labor, including internships for college credit. Workers' advocates say many interns are preventing workers who can't afford to work free from entering the labor force.

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Antonio Basualdo Solorzano has worked at the Ladder Ranch in south-central Wyoming for eight years. On his wages as a guest worker, he's supported seven children back home in Peru.

Immigration Bill May Keep Wage Exemption For Foreign Herders

5:53am June 13, 2013

by Sara Hossaini

Peruvian shepherds on guest worker visas tend thousands of sheep in Wyoming, but they only make about half of what agricultural workers elsewhere are paid. Some ranchers say the exemption from minimum wage requirements is necessary; workers' rights advocates say it's exploitation.

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Google, like Facebook, Microsoft and other Internet companies, is concerned that data requests from U.S. surveillance agencies could ultimately damage its reputation in the U.S. and overseas.

National

Net Giants Try To Quell Users' Jitters About Their Data

7:00pm June 12, 2013

by Jim Zarroli

Tech companies that field National Security Agency data requests are currently barred from sharing those requests publicly. But Google, Microsoft and Facebook all have a financial interest in showing their users that the NSA does not enjoy unfettered access to their data.

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President Obama announces in the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday his nominations of (from left) Robert Wilkins, Cornelia Pillard and Patricia Millett to fill vacancies on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia.

Obama's D.C. Court Nominations Heat Up Battle With Senate

11:25am June 12, 2013

by Scott Horsley

The president announced Tuesday his picks for three vacant spots on the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, considered the second most important court in the nation. Getting nominees through the Senate has been a struggle, and by announcing three at once, the president is putting pressure on Republicans.

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Pushed Off The Job While Pregnant

8:20pm June 11, 2013

by Jennifer Ludden

At a time when most pregnant women work, there are new efforts to keep companies from unfairly targeting employees because of a pregnancy. Allegations of pregnancy discrimination persist and have even risen in recent years despite a decades-old law against it.

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Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is among the lawmakers who say they were never briefed about the government's surveillance programs.

What Did Congress Really Know About NSA Tracking?

6:20pm June 11, 2013

by Ailsa Chang

The White House maintains it had sufficiently briefed Congress on the Internet and phone data monitoring programs leaked last week, but many lawmakers vehemently disagree.

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