THEY DON’T PUT THESE BANS IN PLACE TO PROTECT YOU: Court weighs ban on secret recordings of public officials. “A Massachusetts prosecutor defended Wednesday a state ban on secret audio recordings of police and government officials, asking an appeals court to overturn a decision that found the prohibition unconstitutional. At a hearing before the U.S. First Circuit Court of Appeals, free speech groups countered that such recordings are protected by the First Amendment and that Massachusetts’ law is out of step with national norms, especially in an era when nearly everyone has a recording device in their pocket.”

Related: A Due Process Right to Record the Police.