Office of the Federal Public Defender
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News

Announcements and Law Updates

A comprehensive discussion of new Ninth Circuit cases, and of other new legal challenges and ideas, can be found on the Ninth Circuit blog. The Ninth Circuit blog contains Federal Defender Jon Sands' weekly Ninth Circuit summaries, interesting new defense challenges and theories posted by AFPDs David Porter and Steve Sady, and the “Case o’ The Week” memos by Federal Defender Steve Kalar. The Ninth Circuit blog is a useful starting place for the latest developments in federal criminal defense.

To search the Ninth Circuit blog use the white search box next to the orange "B," in the upper left hand corner of the site. Note that many blog entries have been tagged by Judge involved or by subject. Clicking on those tags will pull up all blog entries related to that tag entry.

CJA counsel are encouraged to comment on the blog postings – many new ideas have been fleshed out and enhanced by attorney commentary.

 

EFF, ACLU Petition Court To Unseal Documents From DOJ's Latest Anti-Encryption Efforts

Back in August, the DOJ headed to court, hoping to obtain some of that sweet sweet anti-encryption precedent. Focusing on an MS-13 gang conspiracy, the DOJ demanded Facebook break encryption on private Messenger messages and phone calls so the government could eavesdrop. Facebook responded by saying it couldn’t do that without altering — i.e., breaking — Messenger’s underlying structure.

Their request ended in a demurral by the federal court. Currently, the details of the court’s decision are unknown.

Today in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, EFF, the ACLU, and Riana Pfefferkorn of Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society sought to shed light on this important issue. The Wiretap Act is written to cover companies that have the ability to monitor communications traveling over their networks, like traditional phone companies. Facebook, however, likely cannot decrypt encrypted Messenger texts and voice calls. EFF, the ACLU, and Stanford are asking the court to release all court orders and related materials in the sealed Messenger case.

From: EFF

Candis Mitchell