mnemonic@well.sf.ca.us (Mike Godwin) (11/12/90)
Readers of the EFF newsgroups will be happy to know that, through our contact with Judge William McMahon, who chairs the ABA subcommittee that drafts warrant guidelines for magistrates, we have offered a substantial revision of the guidelines concerning computer searches and seizures, as well as to the formerly heavily prosecution-oriented commentary to the guidelines. The changes we've suggested are meant to require greater particularity in describing the need for a search and the things to be searched or seized from law-enforcement agents who want to conduct a search or seizure. They also remind the issuing magistrate that some searches and seizures--and, in particular, those involving BBSs and e-mail-- raise Constitutional and statutory free-speech and privacy issues. We'll keep you posted as we learn to what extent our suggested changes are incorporated in the final draft of the guidelines. --Mike -- Mike Godwin, (617) 864-0665 |"If the doors of perception were cleansed mnemonic@well.sf.ca.us | every thing would appear to man as it is, Electronic Frontier | infinite." Foundation | --Blake