Published every weekday, the Switchboard highlights five tech policy stories you need to read.
A bill to ban in-flight calls just cleared a key House committee vote. "When the Federal Communications Commission said last year it was going to relax the rules on using cellphones on airplanes, it touched off a firestorm of public criticism," the Switch's Brian Fung writes. "Some called for the Department of Transportation to ban in-flight calling altogether. Tuesday, a House panel took a step in that direction, passing a bill that would require the DOT to impose such a prohibition."
Rand Paul to file suit against Obama, NSA over 4th Amendment. "Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is slated to file a class action lawsuit Wednesday against President Obama, the National Security Agency and a host of others involved in a U.S. surveillance program that collects information on millions of U.S citizens," according to the Hill. "Paul, a potential presidential candidate in 2016, said he expects the suit to eventually prevail in the Supreme Court."
How Obama Officials Cried ‘Terrorism’ to Cover Up a Paperwork Error. "After seven years of litigation, two trips to a federal appeals court and $3.8 million worth of lawyer time, the public has finally learned why a wheelchair-bound Stanford University scholar was cuffed, detained and denied a flight from San Francisco to Hawaii: FBI human error," Wired reports. "FBI agent Kevin Kelley was investigating Muslims in the San Francisco Bay Area in 2004 when he checked the wrong box on a terrorism form, erroneously placing Rahinah Ibrahim on the no-fly list."
Bitcoin Exchanges Under ‘Massive and Concerted Attack’ "A 'massive and concerted attack' has been launched by a bot system on numerous bitcoin exchanges," according to Coindesk. "This has led to popular exchange Bitstamp putting a temporary halt on all bitcoin withdrawals, and BTC-e announcing possible delays on transaction crediting."