EFF: Bad Ruling on Cell Phone Tracking

["Fergie" <fergdawg () netzero net>]

Via The EFF.

[snip]

Yesterday [20 December 2005], Magistrate Judge Gorenstein of the federal court for the Southern District of New York 
issued an opinion [.pdf] permitting the government to use cell site data to track a cell phone's physical location, 
without the government having to obtain a search warrant based on probable cause.

Judge Gorenstein's flawed legal analysis is in sharp contrast to three other federal court opinions strongly rejecting 
the government’s legal arguments, including a decision by Magistrate Judge Orenstein in the Eastern District of New 
York. While Judge Orenstein referred to the government's legal arguments variously as "unsupported," "misleading," and 
"contrived," and a Texas court called the convolutions of the government’s theory “perverse” and likened its twists and 
turns to a "three-rail bank shot," Judge Gorenstein bought the government's arguments hook, line and sinker.

Unfortunately, this dangerous new opinion falls into a procedural black hole. Because the DOJ is the only party in 
these surveillance cases, there's no one left to appeal the decision. Meanwhile, the DOJ has refused to appeal all 
three times it has lost, despite emphatic requests by the Texas and Eastern District magistrates. The result is that 
other magistrates across the country won't get clear guidance from the appeals courts on this issue.

[snip]

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/archives/004272.php

- ferg


--
"Fergie", a.k.a. Paul Ferguson
 Engineering Architecture for the Internet
 fergdawg () netzero net or fergdawg () sbcglobal net
 ferg's tech blog: http://fergdawg.blogspot.com/


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