Stay woke: Federal challenges to DOJ program expose a hidden truth about surveillance overreach in digital justice reform
A coalition of state attorneys general has launched a coordinated legal assault on the Department of Justice’s flagship grant program, alleging it secretly conditions funding on compliance with federal data-mining protocols that bypass constitutional safeguards. The hidden truth: whistleblowers claim the program’s algorithms have been used to flag journalists and activists as “high-risk” without warrants, sparking a congressional probe into whether the DOJ violated the Privacy Act. As the Supreme Court weighs an emergency appeal, leaked internal memos suggest the program was designed to expand federal wiretap capabilities under the guise of reducing recidivism.