Who’s Watching?

Over the last few days, some pieces of information came my way that have made me rethink the idea of a blog.

Yesterday, I received an e-mail from the Immigration Law Professors listserve that said something like “tunder the USA PATRIOT Act, this e-mail transmission can be accessed by teh government absent a court order.

Today, I read an article at http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2005/11/oregon_refuses_.html about a university’s refusal to pay the legal fees of a law professor threatened with a lawsuit over a law review article. The article argues that Article 20 of the Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction should be strengthened to offer more protection for domestic violence victims who flee transnationally with their children as part of their effort to escape from domestic violence. The article made two brief references to a court dispute in one such case and one of the parties to that dispute threatened to sue. Inside Higher Ed reports that Oregon refused to pay the legal fees of the professor in defending against the threatened lawsuit.

Third, blog reader, and future immigration attorney, Karen Hamilton pointed me to the following blog entry http://hoder.com/weblog/archives/014729.shtml The comments reflect a lot of anti-immigrant hate. But what was esepecially scary is the fact that the immigration inspectors at the border apparently are Googling some entrants (intellectuals?) to see what they are saying about the Bush administration, politics, the Middle East and the war(s), etc.

So please forgive me if I duck and cover from the blogosphere for a few days. 🙂

Anonymous