Computers and Warrants: Some Senators Oppose Justice Plan (go.com)

A group of bipartisan senators introduced a bill on Thursday that blocks a pending judicial rule change allowing U.S judges to issue search warrants for remote access to computers in any jurisdiction, even overseas. Associated Press reports: Justice Department officials say that requirement is not practical in complex computer crime cases where investigators don't know the physical location of the device they want to search. In instances when cybercriminals operate on networks that conceal their identity and location, the government wants to ensure that any magistrate in a judicial district where a crime may have occurred can sign off on a search warrant that gives investigators remote access to the computer. The Obama administration says that authority is especially critical in cases involving botnets, which are networks of computers infected with a virus that spill across those districts. As it now stands, federal officials say, they might have to apply for nearly identical warrants in 94 different courthouses to disrupt a botnet.The U.S. Justice Department has pushed for the rule change since 2013. It has assumed it as a "procedural tweak" needed to modernize the criminal code to pursue sophisticated 21st century criminals, reports Reuters. Congress has until Dec 1 to vote to reject, amend or postpone the changes to Rule 41 of the federal rules of criminal procedure. If lawmakers fail to act, the change will automatically take effect, a scenario seen as likely given the short timeline. ZDNet has more details.

Comments

Re:Where is the server, exactly?

[sjames]

There are already judges that can give them the warrants they need. The only rational purpose of the rule change is to let them ask less experienced judges when they want to slip something past them.

Better Solution

[maz2331]

Perhaps a better idea is to create a new court that can issue warrants in a "cyber jurisdiction" - ie an IP address or address space. That court can be highly specialized and have expertise in issuing such warrants, and have no jurisdiction over any physical area. Once the results of any searches authorized under the "cyber warrant" are resolved to a physical location, then new warrants can be obtained from the traditional courts for those jurisdictions.

Re:Where is the server, exactly?

[BlueStrat]

There are already judges that can give them the warrants they need. The only rational purpose of the rule change is to let them ask less experienced judges when they want to slip something past them.

This.

This makes judge-shopping so much easier! No more pesky jurisdictional issues! Simply pick the judge most in-line ideologically/politically with your prosecutorial/investigative agenda and goals, and bam! A done deal!

If allowed to stand this rule would permit some wack-job ideologue/extremist judge in some backwater hick jurisdiction to issue warrants to search computers anywhere including in Washington D.C., Alexandria VA, Hollywood CA...or Hong Kong.

If they allow this I say find a backwater-jurisdiction judge who leans hard libertarian and have him issue a warrant to search computers of those in Congress, the SCOTUS, and the DoJ/Executive branches in Washington, D.C. on suspicion of RICO/racketeering/criminal corruption violations.

Strat