State Attorneys General seek modification of Communications Decency Act to combat child sex trafficking

Nearly every Attorney General in the country has joined in signing a letter to Congress urging the modification of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA). The change seeks to allow the state prosecution of website owners for hosting user-created advertisements that result in the victimization of children. Section 230 of the CDA has been held to mean that website owners are not liable for the contents of what third parties post on their websites. For example, a newspaper or social media company like Facebook is not liable for comments posted...

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New Jersey Supreme Court holds that police must get warrant for cell site data

In State v. Earls, No. 068765 (N.J. 2013), the Supreme Court of New Jersey held that police must obtain a warrant in order to get cell site location information (CSLI) unless an exception to the warrant requirement applies. During the investigation of several burglaries, police contacted - without a warrant - T-Mobile at three different times in one evening to obtain cell site data for the defendant's cell phone. The trial court found that the defendant had a reasonable expectation of privacy in the location of his cell phone and a warrant should...

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Georgia appeals court reverses burglary conviction due to illegal use of a GPS device

In Hamlett v. State, No. A13A0747 (Ga. Ct. App. 2013), the Court of Appeals of Georgia reversed a judgment in part due to the use of evidence derived from the illegal use of a GPS device. The defendants were convicted of burglary and had attempted at trial to suppress evidence acquired after the placement of a GPS device. The arguments included lack of sufficient probable cause to use the device and also that a subsequent "stop was not supported by a reasonable articulable suspicion that he was or had been involved in criminal activity." The...

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Infographic timelines the history of surveillance by the U.S. government

An infographic was recently published detailing the United States government's surveillance in a timeline. It's a good refresher of the last hundred or so years on the subject. Here's the intro: With the revelation that the federal government, through the National Security Agency, has been collecting phone and Internet records of U.S. citizens in the name of preventing terrorism, Americans are wondering whether private communication exists. Let’s...

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