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In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, the Bush Administration authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on American citizens and others without a warrant. Congress officially legalized this once-secret program with the passage of the 2008 amendments to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, but civil libertarians claim that warrantless wiretapping is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court has just agreed to hear a case on this very issue. Adam Liptak, Supreme Court correspondent for our partner The New York Times, explains what's at stake.

The case of Tyler Clementi became national news when the Rutgers University freshman jumped off the George Washington Bridge in September, 2010. Clementi had recently told his family he was gay. Last March, a New Jersey jury convicted Clementi’s roommate, Dharun Ravi, of bias intimidation and invasion of privacy, after Ravi spied on Tyler kissing another man. Today, New Jersey Superior Court Judge Glenn Berman will announce Ravi's sentence, and many are concerned that he might face a punishment that doesn’t fit the crime. Marc Pourier, law professor at Seton Hall University, is particularly concerned that Ravi will face an unfair sentence. 

On February 4, 1983, Wanda Lopez was stabbed to death in a Texas gas station. A jury convicted Carlos Deluna for the murder five months later and Deluna was executed in December 1989. But this week, nearly 30 years after Wanda Lopez’s death, a new investigation into Deluna’s conviction and execution poses serious questions about Deluna’s guilt, and challenges the fairness of our justice system.

Some 1400 years after the Prophet Muhammad first articulated God’s law—the shari‘a—its earthly interpreters are still arguing about what it means. Legal historian and human rights lawyer Sadakat Kadri clarifies what Islamic law is and is not. In Heaven on Earth: A Journey Through Shari'a Law from the Deserts of Ancient Arabia to the Streets of the Modern Muslim World, he describes his search for the facts behind the myths.

In the news, Sharia law is frequently depicted as a system that condones women being stoned. In the movies, it’s the reason why petty thieves find their hands on the chopping block. But what, exactly, is Sharia law all about? Sadakat Kadri, author of "Heaven on Earth," a history of Sharia law and its many interpretations, explains.

Last night at 6pm, Florida state special prosecutor Angela Corey announced that George Zimmerman had been charged with second degree murder in the Trayvon Martin case.

In addition to stating the charges, she also announced that George Zimmerman was in state custody, and responded to questions from the journalists.

Among the journalists there was Adam Kealoha Causey, a reporter with the Florida Times Union.

And offering a legal interpretation on last night’s press conference is Dale Carson, a lawyer, retired legal instructor for the FBI, and a former police officer.

On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that authorities may strip-search people arrested for any offense — no matter how minor — before they are admitted to jail. In Florence v. County of Burlington, Albert Florence argued that he was subjected to humiliating strip searches after he was mistakenly arrested in 2005. However, according to the court's majority opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the need to protect the safety of prison inmates justifies the use of "thorough searches at intake for disease, gang affiliation, and contraband" by correctional officials. Anita Allen, professor of law and philosophy at University of Pennsylvania explains how the court reached its decision.

When she was only 15 years old, a girl in Washington state ran away from home. Within 36 hours, she was lured into the sex trade. And for over 100 days she was trafficked, with sites like backpage.com advertising her as an 18-year-old escort. Two years later, that girl is 17, and back at home. Her mother is working tirelessly, trying to prevent other children from living the same story as her daughter. Andrea Powell is the executive director of FAIR Girls, which seeks to prevent the exploitation of girls through empowerment and education. FAIR stands for free, aware, inspired and restored.

Columbia University Law School professor, and columnist for The Nation magazine, Patricia Williams discusses the difficulties when perceptions of threats are protected under the law--in the context of the Trayvon Martin case and the Stand Your Ground law in Florida as well as in the Dharun Ravi conviction. 

By now, most of us have heard of Trayvon Martin, the 17-year-old African-American boy who was shot and killed while walking through a friend’s gated community in Sanford, Florida. The shooter was George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watchman who is not black, and who thought Martin looked suspicious. Martin had no weapons on him — only a bag of Skittles and a can of iced tea.

All this week, The Takeaway is talking about incarceration in America. We’ll talk with experts, advocates and former prisoners about the issues they’re facing, behind bars and outside the prison walls. Today we're focusing on juvenile justice.

People go to great lengths to fabricate military service. For every real Navy SEAL the FBI estimates there are hundreds of impostors. Xavier Alvarez, for example is an impostor. Alvarez, once a member of a California water-district board, lied at a public meeting about being a war hero specifically that he was awarded the Medal of Honor. But his lies did more than make him an outcast. They made him a criminal.  

Excerpted from ENEMIES by Tim Weiner Copyright © 2012 by Tim Weiner. Excerpted by permission of Random House, a division of Random House, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.

45: "If We Don't Do This, People Will Die"

On the day after Pearl Harbor, President Roosevelt gave J. Edgar Hoover the power to monitor all telecommunications traffic in and out of the United States. Three weeks after 9/11, President Bush handed Robert Mueller an authority almost as strong. For twenty-nine months following Bush’s order, the FBI had tracked thousands of telephones and Internet addresses in the United States under the aegis of the National Security Agency. 

Sara Ziff, former model and founder of the Model Alliance, the first  workers' rights organization for fashion models, and Susan Scafidi, Fordham Law professor and director of the Law School’s new Fashion Law Institute, talk about the launch of the Model Alliance.

William Shawcross, journalist and author of, Justice and the Enemy: Nuremberg, 9/11, and the Trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, talks about his new book. 

Stephen Colbert's super PAC, Making a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow has raised more than $1 million since getting a green-light from the Federal Election Commission last June. Making a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow has managed to find hilarity in the minutiae of campaign finance — and revealed its inner workings to millions of Americans. But none of this would've been possible without Trevor Potter, Colbert’s attorney and the former FEC Commissioner.

Stephen Glass is now a 39-year-old law clerk at a firm in Beverly Hills, California. But more than decade ago, he was a young reporter on the rise. Glass's career in journalism came to an abrupt halt after it was discovered that over 40 of his articles — written for The New Republic, Harpers, Rolling Stone and other well-regarded magazines — were largely fabricated. Glass made up quotes, invented sources, and backed up his work with elaborate fake notes, fake websites, phony email addresses, phone numbers, and voicemail messages. 

In this podcast short, a strange twist of legal taxonomy causes a dispute over whether X-MEN action figures are toys or dolls and sparks a court case about what it means to be human.

Declan McCullagh, a senior writer and chief political correspondent for CNET, takes a look at some of the concerns surrounding the Stop Online Piracy Act. The House is set to take action on the bill today.