PogoWasRight - Cases in the Courts

West Virginia Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against LifeLock Alleging Deceptive Marketing Practices

Mon, 12 May 2008 12:12:33 -0400

Marks & Klein, LLP today filedits third class action lawsuit against LifeLock, Inc., a provider ofidentity theft protection services, and its CEO Richard "Todd" Davis. Thelawsuit was filed in the Circuit Court of Jackson County, West Virginia(Docket No. 08-C-69), on behalf of Kevin Gerhold of Falling Rivers, as wellas all other LifeLock subscribers in West Virginia.

This latest action followed suits filed by the firm in April on behalfof Dr. and Mrs. Gerald Falke of Hagerstown, Md., as well as all otherLifeLock subscribers in Maryland; and in March on behalf of Dr. and Mrs.Warren Pasternack of East Brunswick, N.J., as well as all other New JerseyLifeLock subscribers.

Source - PR Newswire

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Indianapolis Educator Wins Lawsuit Against Facebook.com

Mon, 12 May 2008 05:39:04 -0400

A Marion County judge has ordered the social networking site Facebook to turn over information identifying the person who set up a fake profile in the name of a high school dean.

Marion Superior Court Judge Robyn Moberly issued the order Friday, a day after Roncalli High School Dean of Students Tim Puntarelli sued the Web site, alleging harassment and identity theft by the unidentified creator of the profile.

Source - Indiana's News Center

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Iowa Supreme Court makes ruling in vehicle drug search case

Sat, 10 May 2008 08:48:34 -0400

The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled in a case that could make it easier for police to search cars for drugs. The ruling involves a case where a Polk County sheriff's deputy stopped a vehicle for speeding on a Des Moines street.

The driver of the car, Allen Allensworth rolled down the window and told the deputy there was an outstanding warrant for his arrest. The deputy noticed Allensworth had a large snake draped around his neck and decided to have the car towed away so the animal could be taken care of.

Before the deputy could do a routine inventory on the contents of the car, he got an anonymous call that there were possibly drugs in the car. The search of the car yielded a bag of marijuana in the console, and the deputy decided to search the steering column where he also found a bag containing approximately twenty-five grams of methamphetamine.

Source - Radio Iowa

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EPIC Prevails in Virginia Fusion Center FOIA Case

Fri, 09 May 2008 17:44:18 -0400

Yesterday, Richmond General District Court held that EPIC "substantially prevailed" on the merits of its freedom of information lawsuit against the Virginia State Police. EPIC filed the case after the State Police refused to disclose documents describing the federal government's involvement in efforts to limit Virginia's transparency and privacy laws. Through the litigation, EPIC uncovered a secret contract between the State Police and the FBI that limits the rights of Virginia citizens to learn what information the State Police collect about them. The court's letter opinion requires the State Police to pay EPIC's litigation costs, but not its attorneys' fees.

Source - EPIC.org

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FBI Withdraws Unconstitutional National Security Letter After ACLU and EFF Challenge

Wed, 07 May 2008 15:13:05 -0400

The FBI has withdrawn an unconstitutional national security letter (NSL) issued to the Internet Archive after a legal challenge from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). As the result of a settlement agreement, the FBI withdrew the NSL and agreed to the unsealing of the case, finally allowing the Archive's founder to speak out for the first time about his battle against the record demand.

Source - EFF

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First Caller-ID spoofers spanked

Wed, 07 May 2008 12:04:56 -0400

The first telemarketers charged with transmitting false Caller IDs (a process known as caller ID spoofing) to consumers were fined and barred from continuing their schemes by a New Jersey District Court judge.

Under the terms of a court order announced by the Federal Trade Commission today, two individuals and one corporate defendant have been barred from violating the agency�s Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) and its Do Not Call (DNC) requirements arising from a telemarketing scheme designed to sell mortgage loans, refinancing services, and other products to U.S. consumers. They were also found liable for $530,000 in damages.

Source - Network World

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CDT Is Joined on Anti-Spyware Brief by Wide Range of Groups and Companies

Tue, 06 May 2008 16:22:52 -0400

In a friend-of-the-court brief filed today, CDT argues that anti-spyware vendors should be protected by the liability protections afforded other filtering companies under the Communications Decency Act. CDT was joined by a broad spectrum of Internet and technology industry groups, public interest organizations, civil liberties groups and individual companies that are all committed to the proposition that users should be empowered to control their own Internet experiences. The brief urges the court to protect anti-spyware vendors from liability in cases brought to intimidate anti-spyware vendors into ignoring spyware.

Source - CDT Press Release

Related - Amicus Brief [pdf]

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Conviction in Swedish file sharing case

Mon, 05 May 2008 06:51:28 -0400

A 31-year-old man at the heart of Sweden�s largest file sharing case to date was convicted in Link�ping District Court on Monday.

The man was given a suspended sentence and fined the equivalent of 40 days� pay for violating Sweden�s copyright protection laws.

The man had been indicted for making approximately 4,500 music files and more than 30 films available for downloading on the internet.

The court ruled that fines, which up until now had been the punishment handed down in similar cases, were not sufficient when considering the number of films and songs included in the case.

Source - The Local

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VT: DNA database constitutional, high court rules

Sat, 03 May 2008 08:09:41 -0400

Law-enforcement authorities have the right to collect, analyze and store DNA samples from people convicted of nonviolent felonies, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled Friday.

In a narrow 3-2 opinion, justices determined the government's interest in monitoring forensic profiles of criminals outweighs their privacy rights.

Source - Burlington Free Press

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WA high court reinstates conviction of boyfriend who used others to stalk girlfriend

Thu, 01 May 2008 13:53:20 -0400

The state Supreme court has reinstated the conviction of man who used other people to stalk an ex-girlfriend.

In a 6-3 decision Thursday, the high court says the crime of stalking includes using other people to intimidate someone. The dissenting opinion says the jury was not given proper jury instructions. But the majority says state stalking law is clear.

Source - MyWestTexas.com

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Cellphone subject to search under automobile expectation, despite its containing personal information

Thu, 01 May 2008 12:02:29 -0400

Seizure and search of the contents of a cellphone, despite its high expectation of privacy, can be proper under the automobile exception. United States v. James, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 34864 (E.D. Mo. April 29, 2008)

Source - FourthAmendment.com

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$54 Million Lawsuit Against Best Buy? Poof, Gone

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:46:59 -0400

Raelyn Campbell had her 15 minutes of fame but lost out on the $54 million she claimed she she deserved. A Washington, D.C., Superior Court judge has dismissed her lawsuit against Best Buy (a fact we have not seen reported elsewhere).

Source - NAM

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French judge can't ban Internet video of motor racing chief

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:32:04 -0400

A judge said Tuesday it was not within his jurisdiction to ban an Internet video of motor racing chief Max Mosley with prostitutes, but he ordered the French recall of newspapers containing photos of the scene.

Judge Joel Boyer said he couldn't ban access to Web site of the British tabloid the News of the World, which had carried a video with images of the scene, because the site is owned and based in Britain. Mosley's lawyer, Philippe Ouakrat, had requested the site be restricted in France because the FIA, the governing body for motorsports that Mosley heads, is based in Paris.

"The mere fact that this site is accessible from France -- like all others on the Web -- is not enough to justify French jurisdiction,'' Boyer wrote.

However, Boyer said French law did cover copies of the newspaper printed in France and ordered issues containing photos of the scene that are still available in the country to be recalled. He ordered a penalty of $2,335 per infraction be applied if the recall is not respected.

In his decision, Boyer wrote the scenes were clearly "sadomasochistic stagings of sexual fantasies'' that merit protection under privacy laws.

Source - Charleston Daily Mail

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MySpace wins suit against 'spam king'

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 06:47:46 -0400

Sanford Wallace, the so-called spam king, has often been accused of sending annoying messages that are typically ignored by the recipient. Perhaps he considered a series of court orders as something he could blow off.

If he did, he was wrong. MySpace has won a legal judgment against Wallace after he failed numerous times to turn over documents or even to show up for court, according to records obtained by CNET News.com.

Source - C|net

Related - The Register

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Article: Protecting Privacy in a Shared Castle: The Implications of Georgia v. Randolph for the Third-Party Consent Doctrine

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 13:27:31 -0400

Abstract:

Judicial treatment of third-party consent searches has been especiallyconvoluted. In Georgia v. Randolph the United States SupremeCourt rejected the rule that consent to the warrantless search ofjointly occupied property by a cotenant or common resident rendersthe search valid against another present cotenant or common residentwho refuses to consent. In the wake of this decision, lower courtshave struggled to reconcile the Court�s revision of third-party consentdoctrine with established principles of Fourth Amendment jurisprudence.The Court�s analysis in Randolph turned upon the Court�sview of widely shared social expectations. The Court�s view, however,contravenes traditional property law concepts that protect theright of cotenants to include, as well as exclude, third parties. The author�sanalysis of Randolph�s effect upon the role of third-party consentin search procedures begins with an examination of how theCourt�s �social expectations� analysis comports with FourthAmendment jurisprudence. Next, the author explains lower courts�struggle with the question of whether Randolph�s holding applies toconsent to enter or consent to search. Finally, the author anticipatespotential consequences of Randolph for households with more thantwo cotenants and for domestic violence cases. To resolve the tensioncreated by Randolph between the third-party consent doctrine and establishedFourth Amendment principles, the author recommends thatthe Court abandon its �social expectations� analysis with respect tothird-party consent searches in favor of the �totality of the circumstances�approach outlined in Justice Breyer�s concurrence. In addition,to protect residents without undermining their privacy interestsin personal effects, the author suggests that courts apply Randolphonly in connection with police requests for consent to search.Citation: Bhargava, M : Article: Protecting Privacy in a Shared Castle: The Implications of Georgia v. Randolph for the Third-Party Consent Doctrine. University Of Illinois Law Review, 2008, 3:1009.

Source - Full-text article [pdf]

via Concurring Opinions

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Government computers and expectation of privacy

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 09:24:27 -0400

In the first part of its opinion in United States v. Larson, __ M.J. ___, No. 07-0263/AF (C.A.A.F. Apr. 25, 2008), CAAF rather easily rules that an Air Force major had no expectation of privacy in his government computer, which he used to set up a rendez-vous with a civilian police detective who was posing on the computer as a 14-year-old girl and on which pornographic images were stored. The computer was located in a private office assigned to Major Larson and the office was capable of being locked. "[B]ut other Air Force personnel, including the fire department and the command's facility manager also had keys to his office." Id., slip op. at 5. The computer itself was government property that had been provided to Major Larson "to accomplish official business." Id. Major Larson "could secure the computer with a personal password, but a system administrator could still access the computer." Id. When Major Larson "logged on to the computer, he was required to click a button accepting conditions listed in a banner, which stated that the computer was Department of Defense property, was for official use, and that he consented to monitoring." Id., slip op. at 5-6. "The military judge found that, while Appellant 'reasonably understood that he was allowed to send personal e-mail or visit the internet as long as it didn't interfere with [his] duties,' this did not change the fact that the government owned the computer and had a right to access it." Id., slip op. at 6.

Source - CAAFlog

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Missouri AG Attempts to Stop Web Site from Selling Personal Information

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:45:18 -0400

Attorney General Jay Nixon is seeking to shut down a Web site that permits anyone with a credit card to purchase detailed personal information about Missouri consumers -- including Social Security numbers -- and have its operator fined a significant sum for each violation of state consumer protection laws. Nixon today filed a lawsuit in Jackson County Circuit Court against A1 Peoplesearch, LLC of Granbury, TX, which does business as www.a1peoplesearch.com.

Nixon says the Web site provides access to such personal information as Social Security numbers, addresses, dates of birth and criminal records to anyone with a credit card. Access to Social Security numbers can be purchased for as little as 97 cents per number.

[...]

Nixon says that both the U.S. Congress and Missouri General Assembly have passed measures to protect the driving records and personal information of Missourians. The Federal Driver Privacy Protection Act (DPPA), passed in 1994, and its state counterparts allow individuals and businesses to obtain information contained in an individual's driving record, but only for certain uses specified in law.

Anyone who provides this information to third parties is obligated under federal law to ensure that the third party's use of the information is for a legitimate purpose allowed under the law. Nixon says A1 Peoplesearch unethically failed to properly verify the use to which its subscribers put the data the defendant sold to them.

[...]

Today's lawsuit is the second time in the past two months that Nixon has taken action against a Web site that sells the personal information of Missourians. The Attorney General filed a lawsuit February 20 against Publicdata.com, another Texas company that had been selling such personal information as Social Security numbers, addresses, birthdays and physical descriptions of Missouri consumers at a cost of $9.95. That lawsuit, filed in Jackson County Circuit Court, is pending.

Source - Government Technology

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IN: Judge refuses to stop license revocations

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 13:18:00 -0400

The Indiana Bureau of Motor Vehicles reports that it has revoked the driver�s licenses and ID cards of about 32,455 people this year because their personal information didn�t match Social Security records.

On Wednesday a Marion Superior Court judge denied an injunction that would have temporarily stopped the BMV from revoking the credentials, a new process that began last year.

The injunction was sought by the American Civil Liberties Union of Indiana. It was paired with a class-action lawsuit where the key plaintiff was South Bend attorney Lyn Leone.

Source - WSBT

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U.S. Islamic group argues against warrantless wiretaps

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 06:34:40 -0400

An Islamic charity group is challenging to the Bush administration's record use of the so-called state secrets privilege, dubbed a "killer bullet" to the group's case over warrantless wiretapping.

Lawyers for the Oregon-based U.S. arm of the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation on Wednesday urged a federal judge to toss out the government's use of the privilege and let their lawsuit proceed.

Source - Mercury News

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Bush lawyer tangles with judge over wiretaps

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 22:16:30 -0400

A Bush administration lawyer resisted a San Francisco federal judge's attempts today to get him to say whether Congress can limit the president's wiretap authority in terrorism and espionage cases, calling the question simplistic.

"You can't possibly make that judgment on the public record" without knowing the still-secret details of the electronic surveillance program that President Bush approved in 2001, Justice Department attorney Anthony Coppolino said at a crucial hearing in a wiretapping lawsuit.

Source - San Francisco Chronicle

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Verizon Wireless, Alltel defy class-action suit over credit privacy

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 13:26:14 -0400

Plaintiffs� lawyers have found a new weapon to pursue class-action consumer litigation against the mobile-phone industry: the Fair Credit Reporting Act.

Verizon Wireless and Alltel Corp. are facing class-action lawsuits in Pennsylvania and Georgia federal courts, respectively, based on alleged noncompliance with the law.

Under 2003 amendments to the FCRA, businesses that accept credit cards or debit cards for payment are required to significantly limit account information on printed receipts given to customers. The law directed merchants to meet new guidelines by early December 2006.

[...]

�Although defendants had up to three years to comply, defendants have willfully violated this law and failed to protect plaintiff and others similarly situated against identity theft and credit card and debit card fraud by continuing to print more than the last five digits of the card number and/or the expiration date on receipts provided to debit card and credit card cardholders transacting business with defendants,� stated the lawsuit against Alltel.

In court filings, Alltel and Verizon Wireless have denied allegations in the lawsuits.

The law �does not require the person that accepts credit cards or debit cards for the transaction of business to truncate the account numbers appearing on the receipt as well as deleting the expiration date. One or the other � suffices with� the statute, Alltel stated. The carrier added: �Plaintiff cannot show that she suffered any actual damage as a result of the allegations contained in the complaint. Namely, plaintiff has not alleged nor can she prove that her identity was stolen as a result of any printed receipt she received from Alltel.�

Verizon Wireless told the court it �did not commit any wrongful act against plaintiff and/or members of the putative class. Accordingly, Verizon Wireless is not responsible for any alleged damages to plaintiff and/or the members of the putative class.�

Source - RCRWireless News

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Judge Rejects Bush Administration's 'State Secrets' Claim

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 10:21:03 -0400

In a case challengingrepeated, lengthy and abusive border stops of American citizens upon theirreturn to the United States after traveling abroad, a federal magistratejudge in Chicago has ordered the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) andthe Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to disclose to the namedplaintiffs whether or not their names appear on the Terrorist ScreeningDatabase (TSDB). In making his ruling, U.S. Magistrate Judge SidneySchenkier rejected the Bush Administration's assertion of a "state secrets"privilege. Under the order made public for the first time last week, thegovernment must produce documents indicating whether the ten namedplaintiffs in the case, including lead plaintiff Akif Rahman of suburbanChicago, are listed on the TSDB.

In rejecting the government's argument that revealing any informationabout the plaintiffs' status on the TSDB would reveal "secret" information,Judge Schenkier wrote that "courts may not uncritically accept thegovernment's assertion of the state secrets privilege." After reviewingarguments on both sides, Judge Schenkier noted that the government "oncertain occasions has disclosed to persons information that would tend toconfirm or deny their TSDB status." Judge Schenkier's reference was toseveral letters written to members of Congress who inquired about therepeated stops of their constituents.

Source - PR Newswire

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Court allows search and seizure in Virginia case

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 09:44:33 -0400

The Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that police can conduct searches and seize evidence after arrests that sometimes violate state law.

The unanimous decision comes in a case from Portsmouth, Va., where city detectives seized crack cocaine from a motorist after arresting him for a traffic ticket offense.

Source - AP

Related - Opinion, Virginia v. Moore [pdf]
Related - Oral argument transcript [pdf]

hat-tips, SCOTUSblog and How Appealing

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Appeals court upholds search of laptop at LAX

Tue, 22 Apr 2008 06:43:53 -0400

It may hold our financial records, innermost thoughts and pictures of our loved ones - but there's nothing private about a laptop computer at the nation's borders, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.

In a closely watched search-and-seizure case, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court's decision to toss evidence of alleged child pornography found on a traveler's computer at Los Angeles International Airport.

Source - DailyBreeze.com

Opinion - U.S.A. v. Michael Timothy Arnold [pdf]
Related - Law.com: 9th Circuit OKs Border Guards' Search of Traveler's Laptop

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NJ Supreme Court rules Internet user has right to privacy

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 17:26:04 -0400

The state Supreme Court ruled today that under the New Jersey Constitution an Internet user has the right to privacy in the subscriber information maintained by the individual's Internet service provider.

Ruling in the case of Shirley Reid, a Cape May County woman who was charged with hacking into her employer's computer system after police obtained her identity from Comcast by using a municipal court subpoena, the high court unanimously held law enforcement had the right to investigate her but should have, instead, used a grand jury subpoena.

The court upheld a state appeals court ruling that overturned the conviction for second-degree computer theft.

Source - NJ.com

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PDs reveal deceased client's confession after 26 years to free another man

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 11:56:04 -0400

After client's death, his two public defenders were able to reveal his confession to a homicide that wrongfully kept another man in prison for 26 years. See today's Chicago Sun-Times and AOL news and an AP post from last week in preparation for yesterday's hearing.

The question of lawyers revealing privileged information from deceased clients that they committed a crime that another is in prison for is controversial. See the Staples Hughes disciplinary case, also here, in North Carolina which was resolved in his favor.

Source - LawofCriminalDefense.com

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Court finds users can expect privacy from Internet providers

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 10:00:44 -0400

The New Jersey Supreme Court says Internet service providers must safeguard personal information about users in New Jersey.

The state's highest court says a valid subpoena is required before the Internet providers disclose private information.

The ruling upholds lower court decisions that suppressing information from the account of a worker in Cape May County who was suspected of breaking into the computer system of her employer.

Source - PhillyBurbs.com

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NJ's top court to rule on Internet privacy

Mon, 21 Apr 2008 06:46:34 -0400

The New Jersey Supreme Court is prepared to rule today on the issue of whether an Internet user has the right to privacy maintained by their Internet service provider under the state Constitution.

The case involves Shirley Reid, a Cape May County woman who was convicted of breaking into her employer's computer system after police obtained her identity from Comcast by using a municipal court subpoena.

Source - NJ.com

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DNA Tests Offer Deeper Examination Of Accused

Sun, 20 Apr 2008 06:23:36 -0400

Twenty years after DNA fingerprints were first admitted by American courts as a way to link suspects to crime scenes, a new and very different class of genetic test is approaching the bench.

Rather than simply proving, for example, that the blood on a suspect's clothes does or does not match that of a murder victim, these "second generation" DNA tests seek to shed light on the biological traits and psychological states of the accused. In effect, they allow genes to "testify" in ways never before possible, in some cases resolving long-standing legal tangles but in others raising new ones.

Source - Washington Post

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National security blocks access to FISA application

Sat, 19 Apr 2008 21:50:26 -0400

Defendant accused of aiding terrorist organization fails to get access to FISA warrant materials on national security grounds. United States v. Warsame, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 31698 (D. Minn. April 17, 2008):

Source - FourthAmendment.com blog

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