The Enron scandal is worthy of the highest level of scrutiny, both because of the enormity of the crimes that may have been committed and because of what the largest bankruptcy in American history has already begun to reveal about the weaknesses in our nation's corporate structures and regulatory oversight.Adam Cohen
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If the courts regarded tweets and other social media information as private, it would not prevent the law enforcement from getting information it really needs. But the government would have to get a search warrant, which requires it to show that it has probable cause connecting what is being searched to a crime.Adam Cohen
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The United States may be a religious nation. But it is also a nation with a strong commitment to separation of church and state.Adam Cohen
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It's tempting to engage in anti-gun polemics and hope that popular opinion will dramatically shift, but it is also likely a mistake. The smarter course for those who want stronger federal gun-control laws anytime soon is legislative stewardship and compromise.Adam Cohen
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With increased awareness should come greater caution about how confessions are used at trial - and a greater willingness to overturn convictions when it becomes clear that a confession was untrue.Adam Cohen
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When tulip mania dies down, all that remains are pretty flowers. When bubbles burst, nothing is left but soapy residue. But the Internet revolution, for all its speculative excesses, really is changing the world.Adam Cohen
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Congress needs to toughen the laws protecting elections and make clear that anyone interfering with democracy will pay a stiff price.Adam Cohen
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There is a lot of talk in conservative circles about judicial modesty and deferring to the political branches. That view of judging often overlooks the important role that courts have in protecting people's rights. But if there was ever a time to defer, it is when Congress is protecting voting rights in the exact way the Constitution directs it to.Adam Cohen
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When locational information is collected, people should be given advance notice and a chance to opt out. Data should be erased as soon as its main purpose is met.Adam Cohen
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A publicly run health care program could compete with private insurance companies, which have a record of overcharging and underperforming.Adam Cohen
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One of the great debates about the Internet is whether it is making people more or less free.Adam Cohen
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Being unemployed - or working at minimum wage - is rough in the best of circumstances.Adam Cohen
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It is one thing to say that there is a constitutional right to keep a gun at home for protection. It is quite another to say there is a constitutional right to bring a hidden gun into a daycare center.Adam Cohen
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Serving up ads based on behavioral targeting can itself be an invasion of privacy, especially when the information used is personal.Adam Cohen
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Vampires are sleek demons for good times. They suavely leech off society - like investment bankers who plunder outsize shares of deals for themselves or rapacious fund managers.Adam Cohen
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After you pay your E-ZPass bill, there is no reason for the government to keep records of your travel.Adam Cohen
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If a company knows it may have to pay a large amount of money if it poses an unreasonable threat to others, it will have a strong incentive to act better.Adam Cohen
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In a perfect world, we would have put users in control of their information when the Internet was first created.Adam Cohen
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For people worried about the Great Recession and the uncertainty of what is coming next, the characters of 'Mad Men' are good company.Adam Cohen
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The minimum wage can play a vital role in lifting hard-working families above the poverty line.Adam Cohen
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In the James Cameron blockbuster 'Avatar,' 3-D cinematography is the real star. The bugs and crawling creatures seem to slither into the theater seats. The floating mountains of the planet Pandora hover gloriously overhead. And the Na'Vi, Pandora's 10-foot-tall, blue-skinned natives, come convincingly to life.Adam Cohen
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For technology companies, information about what people do online is extremely valuable - it can be used to sell targeted advertising or sold to data clearinghouses.Adam Cohen
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It makes sense to have cameras in places where terrorism and crime are of particular concern - such as in Times Square or near major bridges and tunnels. It would be more troubling to learn, however, that the government has focused cameras on the front doors of our homes just to keep track of our comings and goings.Adam Cohen
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Civil lawsuits do two important things: they compensate people who are injured by the bad acts of others, and they penalize people and companies for bad behavior.Adam Cohen
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DMs are a lot like email - and should have the same privacy protections as a mailed letter.Adam Cohen
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Set in the advertising world of the 1960s, 'Mad Men' is stunning to look at - a Camelot-era parade of smartly dressed professionals lounging around on midcentury modern furniture.Adam Cohen
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Law graduates have always ended up in business, government, journalism and other fields. Law schools could do more to build these subjects into their coursework.Adam Cohen
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In zombie horror, the juxtaposition of the calm world of the living and the menace of the undead inspires terror. In zombie comedy, like 'Pride and Prejudice and Zombies,' it is played for laughs.Adam Cohen
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Corporations have enormous treasuries, and there are a lot of things they want from government, many of which clash with the public interest.Adam Cohen
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'Hard Times' does not romanticize the Depression, but at least a few of Mr. Terkel's subjects managed to find silver linings.Adam Cohen
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If the Supreme Court rules that rent control is an unconstitutional taking of property, it would put all sorts of zoning rules in danger.Adam Cohen
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Conservatives like to insist that their judges are strict constructionists, giving the Constitution and statutes their precise meaning and no more, while judges like Ms. Sotomayor are activists. But there is no magic right way to interpret terms like 'free speech' or 'due process' - or potato chip.Adam Cohen
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Liberal judges tend to be expansive about things like equal protection, while conservatives read more into ones like 'the right to bear arms.'Adam Cohen
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Social Security, all public and no option, rescued older Americans from living their final years in poverty.Adam Cohen
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If apes are given the right to humane treatment, it just might become harder to deny that same right to their human cousins.Adam Cohen
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There is no way to undo what happened in the Zimmerman-Martin encounter, but some good can still come of it: it could lead states to repeal their misguided 'Stand your ground' laws.Adam Cohen
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There is no need for neighborhood informants and paper dossiers if the government can see citizens' every Web site visit, e-mail and text message.Adam Cohen
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The Supreme Court's most conservative Justices have presented themselves as great respecters of precedent and opponents of 'judicial activism' - of judges using the Constitution to strike down laws passed by the elected branches of government. If they are true to those principles, they should uphold rent control.Adam Cohen
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When the government takes video of people in public places, the images should only be kept as long as they may reasonably be needed to investigate a crime. After a few days, if there has not been a report of a crime, they should be destroyed.Adam Cohen
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Amazon is holding its own because the service it provides - offering millions of books and other items quickly and easily from home at any hour of the day or night - is a real one, and one that was impossible before there was an Internet.Adam Cohen
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Conservative Justices have a history of not standing by their professed commitment to judicial restraint.Adam Cohen
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A smart phone essentially creates a dossier of your travels, and consumers have no control over who will eventually see that information.Adam Cohen
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Too often, animal-rights supporters seem to care about animals to the exclusion of people.Adam Cohen
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It is not hard to see why the FBI wants wiretapping backdoors. It would certainly make its job easier. But rejiggering the Internet so government can conveniently monitor everything we say and do online is too high a price to pay for making law enforcement more efficient.Adam Cohen
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As self-driving cars become more common, there will be a flood of new legal questions.Adam Cohen
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It is hard to imagine an area in which Congress has more express constitutional authority to act than in protecting the right of minorities to vote.Adam Cohen
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If you're going to call a book 'The Politically Incorrect Guide to American History,' readers will expect some serious carrying on about race, and Thomas Woods Jr. does not disappoint.Adam Cohen
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The public has a right to know what kind of monitoring the government is doing, and there should be a public discussion of the appropriate trade-offs between law enforcement and privacy rights.Adam Cohen
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Voting in presidential and congressional elections is a national right - and the national government should protect it.Adam Cohen
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