INTELLIGENT DISCUSSION
At the invitation of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Cato senior fellow Julian Sanchez addressed the U.S. Intelligence Community’s Civil Liberties, Privacy, and Transparency Summit in January. Sanchez explained how advances in technology have made some of the premises behind mass surveillance obsolete. He also discussed how the Fourth Amendment should be understood to strengthen limits on the surveillance of Americans.

GERRYMANDER NO MORE
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan issued an executive order that establishes Maryland’s first-ever independent redistricting commission, which will propose new congressional district boundaries after the 2020 Census. Cato senior fellow Walter Olson was named as co-chair of the bipartisan panel, building on his previous work to help Maryland comply with court rulings in a state widely regarded as one of the most gerrymandered in the country.

DAM RIGHT
Thirty years ago, tens of thousands of tribal families were displaced during the Sardar Sarovar Dam project in India. In the process, they were compensated not just with land but also with clear legal title and property rights, which they previously lacked. A new documentary on the Indian streaming service Disney+Hotstar, titled “Dammed but Not Damned,” presents field research on these families by Cato scholar Swami Aiyar and Columbia University’s Neeraj Kaushal.