Big Brother To Watch Judges?

One week from today, the U.S. Judicial Conference will decide whether judges and their staff can handle grown-up responsibilities like ... using the internet. No, you did not click onto The Onion by mistake: after heated disagreement earlier this year, the issue is coming to a head. Judge Alex Kozinski of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has a great Wall Street Journal opinion piece, today only. (It wants your email; try me@privacy.net.) Jeffrey Rosen's analysis in TNR is another good take on it. If you don't think the men and women who hold people's lives in their hands need daddy and mommy looking over their shoulder, you might take a moment to fire off a quick, polite email per the EFF's suggestion. If surveillance can invade a judge's workplace, it's for damnsure there's nothing keeping it out of yours.

Comments

I have right!

[Anonymous Coward]

Every time I read a YRO article, I am reminded of that scene in Dirty Harry. You knw the one. Harry hasjust tracked the killer to his home at the stadium, and as the killer runs away across the field, Harry shoots him in the leg from the sideline. He calmly walks across the field to where the killer is squirming and clutching his knee, then proceeds to interrogate the weirdly effeminate murderer by stepping on the wounded knee.

Instead of revealing the location of the kidnapped girl, the killer repeatedly wails "I have rights! I have rights!"

You guys look like that killer. You're pathetically uncharismatic, you're outclassed and you're in the wrong. I love watching you squeal and moan.

Re:great opinion piece?

[delcielo]

I agree completely. As the employer, it is MY computer that you're using, and as such, anything that happens on that computer is MY business. If I choose not to impose monitoring on you, then I'm a heck of a guy. But while you're using MY computer and MY bandwidth, it is not your God-given right to surf wherever you want and without oversight from me. How in God's name would I maintain any control over the network if I'm not allowed to monitor it? Even recording the target addresses of outgoing traffic would constitute a violation of privacy. So what do I do? Do I go around asking each person "Hey, did you do anything I should punish you for today?" Give me a break. Most of us operate under some policy that allows our employer to monitor/control our network use, and don't make a federal case of it. We just behave and go on. It's just that the ego of a federal judge is somewhere on the 40th floor compared to us.

Welcome to the modern workplace, your Honor.