Supreme Court Agrees to Decide Major Privacy Case on Cellphone Data and More in Politics Today

Here are a few other stories Countable is watching today:

1. Supreme Court agrees to decide major privacy case on cellphone data

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a major case on privacy rights in the digital age that will determine whether police officers need warrants to access past cellphone location information kept by wireless carriers.

The justices agreed to hear an appeal brought by a man who was arrested in 2011 as part of an investigation into a string of armed robberies at Radio Shack and T-Mobile stores in the Detroit area over the preceding months. Police helped establish that the man, Timothy Carpenter, was near the scene of the crimes by securing cell site location information from his cellphone carrier.

At issue is whether failing to obtain a warrant violates a defendant's right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures under the U.S. Constitution's Fourth Amendment.

Read more at Reuters.

2. White House formally backs plan to transfer air traffic control system to private corporation

The White House on Monday formally endorsed a plan to spin off more than 30,000 federal workers into a private nonprofit corporation, separating the nation’s air traffic controllers and those who work on a $36 billion modernization program from the Federal Aviation Administration.

The Trump administration proposal essentially is an endorsement of a plan that failed to gain sufficient traction in Congress last year. The plan is in keeping with the stated desire of the administration and congressional Republicans to streamline government and transfer some functions into private hands.

Read more about the pro’s and con’s of the issue at Countable.

Read more at the Washington Post.

3. Grand Canyon at risk as Arizona officials ask Trump to end uranium mining ban

A coalition of influential officials in Arizona and Utah is urging the Trump administration to consider rolling back Obama-era environmental protections that ban new uranium mining near the Grand Canyon.

They argue that the 20-year ban that came into effect in 2012 is unlawful and stifles economic opportunity in the mining industry. But supporters of the ban say new mining activity could increase the risk of uranium-contaminated water flowing into the canyon. Past mining in the region has left hundreds of polluted sites among Arizona’s Navajo population, leading to serious health consequences, including cancer and kidney failure.

Read more at the Guardian.

4. U.S. Supreme Court Affirms North Carolina Districts Rely Too Much on Race

For the third time in recent weeks, the Supreme Court on Monday took action on a voting rights dispute in North Carolina, affirming a decision striking down many General Assembly districts in the state for relying too heavily on race.

The court’s summary order gave no reasons, but the question in the case was similar to one the justices addressed last month. In that case, the court struck down two of the state’s congressional districts as racial gerrymanders.

The new cases presented the same basic question in the context of the state’s General Assembly.

Read more at the New York Times.

5. Most top Pentagon jobs still empty as Trump insists on loyalty

Four months into his presidency, Donald Trump has filled only five of the 53 top jobs at the Pentagon – the slowest pace for nominations and confirmations in over half a century.

Several of his high-profile picks, including Navy and Army secretary nominees, have had to withdraw because of their business entanglements. In other cases, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis has clashed with the White House, which has blacklisted national security and defense leaders who publicly disagreed with Trump during the 2016 campaign, according to several current and former defense officials.

The problem isn’t that the Senate isn’t confirming Trump’s picks, but that dozens of national security posts still don’t have nominees. In the meantime, a skeleton crew of holdovers from the Obama administration and career civil servants are doing the day-to-day work at the Defense Department.

Read more at McClatchy DC.

— Asha Sanaker

(Photo Credit: Wikimedia / Creative Commons )