Category Archives: Constitution

Admissibility, Cases of Interest, Constitution, Criminal Liability, Judges, Law, Scope

Closing the Barn Door… #PDA, #GPS & the #4thAmendment

MP900385971If you’ve been following my Tweets lately (I made it easier to do last week by adding a Twitter module to the sidebar), you know I’ve been spending a lot of time linking you to what I feel are some of the best analyses available on the developing area of how 4th Amendment searches & seizures pertain to new technology.

All eyes are on the Supreme Court again, as they prepare to hear arguments this coming Monday in U.S. v. Jones.  Jones pertains to the use of GPS tracking devices and goes directly to the core issues; 1) What is a reasonable expectation of privacy, and 2) When is a warrant required?  For one such analysis, here’s a link to Erwin Chemerinsky’s view.

We also have the emerging issue with cellphones and PDAs.  This morning, I read a great analogy by Lee Tien, a senior staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who – correctly, in my view – likens PDAs to “…a key to your house. When you have someone’s key, you don’t just have a physical object, you have a way to investigate his life in ways you otherwise wouldn’t have.”  [italics/bold added]

You also need a warrant before you enter.

As an IT representative, I had the most trouble explaining this to laymen.  People who are familiar with technology better understand that the information is everywhere and nowhere.  People with less experience tend to think of information in dimensional terms, or not as the string, but as the cans on either end (what we used to refer to as ‘guzinta/guzouda’).

A good example of this was when I was asked by a representative of the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office to examine their pilot program for helping parents protect their kids from predators.  One of the suggestions was to make sure that the family PC was in an open area of the house so that parents would always be able to know what their kids were doing.  They visualized the PC as if it were a telephone, e.g. I call your home number and it rings in your home on one of your physical devices.  They couldn’t grasp that if the child was up to something they didn’t want their parents to know about, they’d likely be doing it at a friend’s house, at school or at the library.  In essence, a person could access their information anywhere, not just on the home PC.

Another example was an instruction to parents to demand that their kids provide them with their email accounts.  Again, under 18 or not, if a child is hiding something, they’ll set up a free email account – and they won’t be telling you about it.

Keep in mind, the above examples are pre-texting and pre-PDA.  Of course, now that we have PDAs, texting, etc., non-tech-savvy-people have a much easier time understanding the transitory nature of information.

Sometimes, though, I envision judges as those same parents.  I guess if I were appearing in front of the Supreme Court, I’d tell them that searching someone’s PDA is akin to searching a 4-drawer file cabinet, but with one thing in common between the two; if the owner locked the cabinet (password-protected the PDA), the government would need a warrant. 

Now comes the more difficult argument; explaining how a password is exactly the same as a key…

Admissibility, Cases of Interest, Constitution, Criminal Liability, eDiscovery California, Judges, Law

e-Discovery California: Brown Cancels Leno

Continuing what many privacy advocates will see as a disturbing trend against 4th Amendment protections in the state of California (and elsewhere), Governor Brown has vetoed the ‘Leno’ bill, SB 914.  The bill would have required the government to obtain a warrant to search a cellular device upon an arrest.  This follows on the heels of the Supreme Court of the United States declining to grant review of the Diaz case.

In another California case, the 2nd District Court of Appeal cited Diaz in upholding the warrantless search of a digital camera.

These days, if you blink, you may miss another decision affecting the concept of privacy in the United States.

Admissibility, Cases of Interest, Constitution, Criminal Liability, Judges, Law, Scope

Case Got Your Tongue? I Plead the Fourth!

MP910220941 If things continue like this, we're not going to know what the 4th Amendment stands for, anymore.  In my neck of the woods, a three-judge panel from the 6th District Court of Appeals for California extended the authority that SCOTUS granted in Diaz.  In People v. Nottoli (H035902) [warning: link opens 38-page pdf], the Court summoned the previous 'container' argument and ruled that during an inventory search incident to a lawful arrest, a cellular device (in this case, a Blackberry) found in a glove compartment was fair game for a warrantless search.

What result if Nottoli had password-protected his device?

While California appears to be loosening 4th Amendment protections further, other jurisdictions are tightening them.  In United States v. Musgrove, 2011 WL 4356521 (E.D.Wis. 2011) (Joseph, M.J.), the mere movement of a mouse/touching of a keyboard was enough to trigger an illegal search ruling.  How?  Defendant's PC's screen-saver was enabled.  Nothing was visible to officers who responded to D's home to investigate the possibility of criminal behavior.  By either touching the mouse or keyboard, an officer brought the device out of screen-saver mode, revealing a Facebook wall containing incriminating evidence, resulting in D's arrest.

Citing the 'Plain View' exception, the Court reasoned that, had the Facebook wall been visible, no violation would have occurred.  However, once the officer manipulated the mouse or keyboard to reveal the page, this constituted an illegal search.

What result if Musgrove had password-protected his device?

The dichotomy between these two cases is that the former was a search incident to a lawful arrest and the latter was a search resulting in a lawful arrest (according to facts, I'm giving the officers the benefit of the doubt because only the search was ruled unlawful, not the arrest – yet).

Why does this interest me?  Anyone who has used a Blackberry knows that, under normal circumstances, the device goes into sleep mode and one must manipulate a key, the trackball or the trackpad to bring it out of that mode.

I suspect that plenty more fact-specific arguments are on the horizon…

Cases of Interest, Constitution, Cost, Judges, Law, Privilege

The Truth about Truth as a Defense

MP900342030 You can be held liable for telling the truth.  That’s right.  As counter-intuitive as it sounds, it’s (for lack of a better word) true.  I mention this because, once again, I’m hearing that someone – a blogger, in this case – was held liable for reporting the truth – and everyone gets into a lather.  How can this be?  It’s a travesty of justice!

Well, technically, they’re right.  The pure definition of defamation includes a false something.  But this sometimes clashes with other laws, such as the right to privacy, also referred to as “the right to be let alone”.  After all, some truths are private.

We could argue all day about a court’s right/wrong decisions, but taking the above case as an example, they seemed to be looking at the totality of the conduct of the defendant – and the results of that conduct.

Ultimately, as the post’s author explains, this case came down to contract law.  They got the defendant on tortious interference.  We’ll see what happens on appeal.

Something to think about prior to that next gossip session at the water cooler.

Constitution, Criminal Liability, eDiscovery California, Implementation, Technology

e-Discovery California: Predictive Policing or e-Profiling?

MC900056374 Please note; I didn't say racial profiling…

I was some kind of Twitter-maniac this weekend.  Normally, I don't tweet a lot of articles because I don't think it's the best use of the discipline, but it seemed like every time I turned around, I was reading interesting pieces about technology, security, evidence, law or the economy (as it pertains to us) that I thought would be of interest.  If you're one of my followers (how creepy-sounding is that?!), I hope you'll check them out.

This article begs further examination, however.  The police force in Santa Cruz, California is experimenting with using mathematics to predict where crime hots spots will occur – then deploying resources to those likely hot spots.

I wrote about this back in January.  It kind of takes on the pathology of the movie, Minority Report.  At the time, I said, "We don’t arrest people for crimes they haven’t committed, yet."  We still don't; but it sure would be convenient to be in the vicinity waiting for them when they do.

In theory, it seems like a great tool – using history of prior crimes to predict future ones; but it was the following comment by a patrol officer that raised my eyebrow (just one, mind you):

"[The program] doesn't give me legal reason to arrest somebody just for being in my hot spot, but it gives me good reason to stop and ask what they are doing,"

My question in response to that statement is, "No, it doesn't give you legal reason to arrest somebody, but does it give you reasonable suspicion?"

It's a rhetorical question because, absent any additional facts, we can't really answer.  However, I know one person who would definitely be asking it; a good defense attorney.

Constitution, Criminal Liability, Judges, Security

Don’t Have a Cow, Man!

MP900178988 Barely a week after I posted about riots, the use of social media and the Brandenburg Standard, we get San Francisco riots (or should I say, "protests"), BART's attempts to prevent the use of social media and an acrimonious debate about the Brandenburg Standard.

But I'm a lawyer and as such, I look at the facts on the ground.  Is social media being used as a vehicle to incite imminent lawless action (not the peaceful variety, after all, one may break the law in a peaceful manner)?  Does the "state" have a compelling interest to protect the public?  Is jamming cell signals within the limited range of the stations a reasonable response to a perceived imminent threat?  Is there a private/public argument to be made?

We argue; judges decide.

Here's one I didn't see discussed; the authorities may have done the rioters a favor – in a backwards capacity.  After all, in the process of preventing communication between potential wrong-doers, they may have prevented themselves from collecting electronic evidence that might have ultimately led to identifying and prosecuting those same wrong-doers.

If only it were that simple.  This assumes, for example, that outgoing text messages timed out.  Depending on the device – and the network it communicates with – if the user reconnected to the network before that happened…

Constitution, Criminal Liability, e-Evidence Insights, International, Media

e-Evidence Insights: Social Media Doesn’t Distinguish Between Good and Bad Riots

Rockem_Sockem_Robots In the "Be careful what you wish for!" category, first we had the Arab Spring, which was considered to be a positive development for the Middle East – in the West, anyway.  Now we have the UK riots – and the reaction is entirely the opposite.

With the Arab Spring, social media was hailed as a catalyst to facilitate needed change.  And with the UK riots?  Social media is being disparaged as – you guessed it – a catalyst to facilitate anarchy.

That's the problem with revolutions; perspective is skewed based on which side of them you're on.

What's more interesting to me is the difference between the vehicles of change.  With the Arab Spring, it was Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.  With the UK riots, it's Blackberry Messenger (as if Blackberry doesn't have enough public-relations issues right now, including losing yours truly as a customer).

What's driving this decision?  Economics, for one (Blackberries are cheaper in that region) and secrecy (BBM is private).  I don't want to belabor the point – people died in both riots – but we should endeavor to understand these issues.

If this were happening in the United States, we'd be arguing whether this was a Constitutional violation of the Brandenburg standard.  And while we argued, the FBI would be accumulating electronic evidence.

You may consider yourself to be on the 'right' side of the revolution, but make no mistake; either way, someone is tracking you.  This will make a big difference if, in the end, you find yourself on the 'wrong' side.

Constitution, Criminal Liability, Duties, eDiscovery California, Judges, Law, Sanctions

#eDiscovery California: AB 141: “Fresh” Approach makes Juror Texts & Tweets a Misdemeanor!

MP900442445 California is putting its money where my mouth is and is enacting AB 141, authored by Assemblyman Felipe Fuentes (D-Sylmar) and signed by Governor Brown yesterday.  It codifies the already-existing rule that juror texting or tweeting – or any other electronic communication in relation to an existing case – is a violation of duty.  But effective January 1, 2012, a juror caught doing so is chargeable with a misdemeanor.

Technically, judges could most likely do so right now under their general ‘contempt’ power, but, as we’ve seen with electronic discovery rules, this specifically targets and clarifies the rules as they apply to electronic misconduct.

I’m firmly in the camp that believes there must be harsh (or more harsh) penalties for juror mischief if we have any hope of maintaining the integrity of the legal process (some will probably say we’re too late).  This is a good start.

And for anyone who believes a judge wouldn’t dare impose such a penalty?  Any lawyer who’s spent time in a few California courtrooms will tell you plainly; you’re wrong!

Admissibility, Cases of Interest, Constitution, Criminal Liability, eMail, Law, Privilege, Sanctions, Scope, Technology

The 6th Amendment, the Blackstone Ratio & #eDiscovery

GOOBF Card

"Better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer."

– William Blackstone, 1783

"’tis much more Prudence to acquit two Persons, tho’ actually guilty, than to pass Sentence of Condemnation on one that is virtuous and innocent."

– Voltaire, 1749

Whether you agree with the passages above (or a similarly-stated quote by Benjamin Franklin, circa 1785), one thing is certain; they form the basis of criminal jurisprudence in the United States.  At least, they used to…I think that claim would be up for strenuous debate these days.

But that's why I wanted to bring you this particular case for our examination.  It doesn't matter what I think; what matters is, familiarize yourself with these issues because there's a high likelihood you'll see them – or something like them – in civil or criminal court.  After all, attorney-client privilege is attorney-client privilege – it just so happens the venue in this example is criminal court, and the argument is Constitutionality in theory; the 6th Amendment Right to Counsel.

One thing that distinguishes a criminal complaint from a civil one is, when the government discovers and/or seizes evidence (whether due to reasonable suspicion, probable cause or a formal warrant) in many instances, the target does not enjoy the benefit of attorney representation (hey, it might be torture for you, but I'd say my company is enjoyable…).

Such is the case with defendant.  The government seized certain computer records, and among those records were emails from defendant to his wife – which were subsequently forwarded to defendant's attorney.  Defendant was convicted, but upon appeal, it was determined that the emails were subject to attorney-client privilege and the prosecutor's review of same was deemed a violation of defendant's 6th Amendment rights.

What am I telling you?  First, you won't always have control over what data is turned over to the other side (do I hear "clawback agreements", anyone?) and second, if you find yourself in a situation like this, somebody on your side had better examine each and every shred of data in the possession of your adversary.

Again, this isn't a judgment on the validity/invalidity of overturning a conviction based on a technicality (I'll leave it to followers of the Casey Anthony trial to argue their perception of what's fair or unfair about the current judicial system).  We have a job to do, our clients depend on us and we are to zealously represent – and protect – their interests.

File this one under Segal's Ratio: "For your client's sake, where electronic evidence is concerned, endeavor to know what you don't know."