A federal judge on Friday heard a lawsuit filed by the ACLU, the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU), and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) against the government’s assertion that it has the authority to search, seize and copy laptops, cell phones, cameras and other devices of people at America’s borders even if there is no suspicion of wrongdoing.

Specifically, the hearing was on whether the government’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit against laptop search policies at the border was legitimate.

While at Netroots Nation 2011, I had the privilege of speaking to Lieutenant Dan Choi, who served in the US Army infantry, went to war in Iraq and graduated from West Point with a degree in Arabic.

Choi was kicked out of the military under “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” (DADT) about one year ago. At Netroots Nation, Choi celebrated his one year “anniversary or birthday” as a civilian. He also noted that despite DADT being repealed there are still soldiers getting kicked out of the military for being gay.

A few days ago, rallies were held in cities all over the United States in support of veteran Chicano activist Carlos Montes, who had his home raided by the FBI on May 17. The rallies coincided with Montes’ arraignment hearing for felony charges, which were filed against him by the LA County Sheriffs and FBI after the raid.

The target of an ever-expanding government investigation into antiwar and international solidarity activists, Montes demanded that his charges be dropped. The District Attorney denied his request. Montes asked to see the search warrant and police report on the raid of his home. The District Attorney initially refused the request but then agreed to release heavily edited versions of the documents. Montes was also told he would not be allowed to show the documents to the press.

If you’re in the Boston area, please join this group of committed students who will convene at the Boston courthouse tomorrow at 6pm. For more information see the press release here, and the Civic Counsel website here.

David House, the friend of Bradley Manning’s who has been repeatedly harassed by the government because of his support for Manning, has been subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury in Alexandria on Wednesday, June 15 (PDF: Letter, Directions, subpoena).

According to people familiar with the Grand Jury’s proceedings, the Department of Justice prosecutor in charge of the case is Tracy McCormick of the Eastern District of Virginia, whose background is in prosecuting child molester cases. This likely due to the fact that such cases usually involve computer forensics, and gives an indication that the government’s case against Manning will likely come down to what they can find on Manning’s hard drive.

The ACLU has filed suit on behalf of FDL blogger David House, the friend of Bradley Manning who had his laptop seized by Homeland Security agents last November.

David joins us in the comments to talk about the suit.

FDL’s first “webinar” took place on Monday, April 26, at 8-9 pm EDT.

Marcy Wheeler moderated a panel that included Army Ret. Col Ann Wright and David House, friend of Bradley Manning.

We’re excited to announce the first virtual conference for the FDL Membership Program: on Monday night at 8pm EDT, we’ll have a discussion about Bradley Manning’s conditions and the latest news surrounding his detention with special guests David House, Ret. Col. Ann Wright, and Marcy Wheeler.

For over seven months, Manning has been detained in solitary confinement at a maximum security military brig in Virginia. He has been forced to endure widely condemned conditions and could face the death sentence as a result of charges recently leveled against him. He has yet to receive so much as a preliminary hearing.

Why did they make Bradley spend the night naked? What could he have done to make them do that? He’s been in his jail cell 23 hours a day without talking to anyone, so I don’t see how he had a chance to do anything to make the jail people mad.