roundtable: A bad day in the Senate
roundtable: A bad day in the Senate
A bad day in the Senate
CWHITCOM@bentley.edu
Thu, 15 Jun 1995 00:09:31 -0400 (EDT)
Date: Thu, 15 Jun 1995 00:09:31 -0400 (EDT)
From: CWHITCOM@bentley.edu
Subject: A bad day in the Senate
To: roundtable@cni.org
Message-Id: <01HRPR5X85J60036MW@bentley.edu>
It's been a bad day for freedom of speech. These are selected posts
reporting on Senate events of the day.
Coralee Whitcomb
<cwhitcom@bentley.edu>
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FINS SPECIAL REPORT June 14, 1995
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SENATE REJECTING PUBLIC INTEREST IN TELECOM BILL
Consumer Representative on US Board Tabled
Washington, DC--The US Senate today voted 89 to 11 to cut off debate on
the Telecommunications Competition and Deregulation Act of 1995 [S.652].
The Senate also voted 55 to 45 to table an amendment (No. 1344) proposed
by Senator Robert Kerrey (D-NE) providing for a representative of
consumers on the Federal-State Joint Board on universal service. With
a long list of amendments still pending consideration (45 out of 67
filed as of June 13) even with the cloture vote final vote on the measure
may not come until Friday, unless other compromises by the leadership are
agreed to.
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reposted for JSEIGER@CDT.ORG
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** ** ** *** POLICY POST
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** ** ** *** June 14, 1995
** ** ** *** Number 17
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CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY
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A briefing on public policy issues affecting civil liberties online
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CDT POLICY POST Number 17 June 14, 1995
CONTENTS: (1) Senator Harkin Amendment Seeks to Expand Law Enforcement
Access to Telephone Subscriber Information
(2) Text of CDT/ACLU Letter to Harkin
(3) CDA Update -- VOTE EXPECTED TODAY!
(4) About CDT/Contacting Us
This document may be re-distributed freely provided it remains in its
entirety.
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(1) Senator Harkin Amendment Would Expand Law Enforcement Access and Gut
Privacy Protections For Telephone Subscriber Information
Yesterday, CDT became aware that Senator Tom Harkin is planning to
introduce an amendment to the Telecommunications Competition and
Deregulation Act of 1995 (S. 652) currently being debated on the Senate
floor. Harkin's proposed amendment would eliminate the Fourth Amendment
protections currently in 18 USC Sec. 2703 and would give law enforcement
access to subscriber and customer information on telemarketers from an
electronic communications service provider with the presentation of a
mere written notice.
Harkin's proposal threatens to undermine severely the privacy protections
on personal information held by communications providers. If Harkin's
amendment passes, it would open the door to the future unraveling of this
section which now requires the government to present a court order, warrant,
or subpoena in order to obtain subscriber information.
The Senate is expected to vote on the Harkin Amendment as early as today.
CDT urges you to contact Senator Harkin to express your concern about his
proposal.
To Contact Senator Harkin:
Phone: +1.202.224.7303
by email: tom_harkin@harkin.senate.gov
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(2) Text of CDT/ACLU Letter to Sen. Harkin
June 13, 1995
The Honorable Tom Harkin
United States Senator
SH-531 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510-1502
Dear Senator Harkin:
We are writing to register our strong opposition to your proposed
amendment to the Telecommunications Competition and Deregulation Act of
1995 (S. 652) which would amend 18 U.S.C. Sec. 2703(c)(1)(B), which
provides privacy safeguards for telecommunication subscriber information by
controlling government access. Under your proposal, law enforcement
could gain access from a telecommunications service provider to
subscriber information upon mere submission of a "formal written
request" where the subscriber is a telemarketer. This proposal
represents a severe departure from the strict Fourth Amendment framework
that governs law enforcement access to personal communications and
information under Title 18. Under '2703, law enforcement officers must
first present a warrant, court order, or administrative subpoena to an
electronic communications service provider prior to disclosures of
information about its subscribers. This section acknowledges the
important privacy interest people have in the personal information held
by electronic communications service providers. Your proposal would
require information to be provided with fewer privacy protections than
currently exist even in the case of a foreign counter-intelligence
investigation.
The Fourth Amendment privacy protections embodied in Title 18 are
the product of a long and thorough debate in which the concerns of law
enforcement and the rights of citizens were aired and carefully
balanced. Your proposed amendment would unravel this delicate balance
without the deliberative process necessary to carve out any exception to
standard Fourth Amendment protections.
The proposed amendment suggests that the available mechanisms
offered in Title 18 are inadequate to address the problem of
telemarketing fraud. However, there has been no opportunity to create a
record of the problem or the necessity of amending existing law. We
oppose weakening of court order requirements of Title 18. We do not
believe that this instance justifies opening the door on eliminating the
strong Fourth Amendment privacy protections -- rendering other future
"exceptions" to these privacy protections a virtual certainty.
We agree, telemarketing fraud is a serious problem and we are
available to meet with you to discuss means of addressing it. We
encourage you to seek hearings on this issue so that a full record is
developed and appropriate remedies, tailored to the problem, are
crafted. However, we must adamantly oppose your proposed amendment to
the Telecommunications Competition and Deregulation Act. We look
forward to working with you.
Center for Democracy and Technology
American Civil Liberties Union
Washington National Office
--
For more information contact:
The Center For Democracy and Technology
Janlori Goldman or Deirdre Mulligan (202) 637-9800
ACLU
Don Haines (202) 675-2322
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(3) CDA Update -- SENATE VOTE EXPECTED TODAY OR TOMORROW
The Senate vote on the Communications Decency Act will occurr either today
(6/14) or tomorrow (6/15). Senator Exon has joined forces with Senator
Coats (R-IA), and has introduced a revised Exon/Coats Communications
Decency Act amendment. The text of this proposal was not available for
posting at the time of this writing, but will be made available as soon as
we have it.
The Exon/Coats proposal is reportedly similar to the earlier Exon
proposals, and would severely restrict the free speech and privacy rights
of all Internet users. In addition, the Exon/Coats proposal adds a
provision to ban the dissemination of indecency on all cable channels. This
would ban the showing of popular programs like NYPD Blue, Melrose Place,
educational programing dealing with reproduction, and other programming,
and is a clear violation of longstanding Constitutional precedent.
Senator Leahy plans to offer his alternative (S. 714) during the debate
today, but the outcome at this point is uncertain. Your help is needed now.
For instructions on what you can do (including a list of Senate Contacts),
send a message to vtw@vtw.org with a subject "send alert" (w/o the quotes).
CDT is closely following developments on this issue, and will post further
information as soon as it becomes available.
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(4) ABOUT THE CENTER FOR DEMOCRACY AND TECHNOLOGY/CONTACTING US
The Center for Democracy and Technology is a non-profit public interest
organization. The Center's mission is to develop and advocate public
policies that advance constitutional civil liberties and democratic
values in new computer and communications technologies.
Contacting us:
To subscribe to CDT's news distribution list (to receive future Policy Posts
directly), send email to <cdt-lists@cdt.org> with a subject of 'subscribe
policy posts'.
** NOTE TO THOSE WHO HAVE ALREADY REQUESTED TO BE ADDED TO CDT's DISTRIBUTION
LIST: We are still working to build our listserv -- you will begin
receiving Policy Posts on this list very soon. We appreciate your patience!
General information on CDT can be obtained by sending mail to
<info@cdt.org>
CDT has set up the following auto-reply aliases to keep you informed on the
Communications Decency Act issue.
For information on the bill, including
CDT's analysis and the text of Senator
Leahy's alternative proposal and
information on what you can do to
help -- cda-info@cdt.org
For the current status of the bill,
including scheduled House and
Senate action (updated as events
warrant) -- cda-stat@cdt.org
World-Wide-Web:
http://www.cdt.org/
ftp:
ftp://ftp.cdt.org/pub/cdt/
gopher:
CDT's gopher site is still under construction and should be operational
soon.
snail mail:
Center For Democracy and Technology
1001 G Street, NW Suite 700 East
Washington, DC 20001
voice: +1.202.637.9800
fax: +1.202.637.9800
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FINS SPECIAL REPORT June 14, 1995
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SENATE APPROVES EXON AMENDMENT
Dirty Words A Crime on Internet
Washington, DC--The US Senate today approved by a vote of 84 to 16 an
amendment [No. 1288, as modified] to the Telecommunications Competition
and Deregulation Act of 1995) [S.652] offered by Sen. James Exon (D-NE),
that would prohibit obscene or harassing use of telecommunications
facilities. The law, if enacted and signed by the President would in
pertinent part prohibit the use of a telecommunications device "knowingly
to make, create, or solicit any comment, request, suggestion, proposal,
image, or other communication which is obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy,
or indecent, with intent to annoy, abuse, threaten, or harass another
person." Various defenses are authorized under the proposed law including
the defense that "a person has taken reasonable action in good faith to
restrict or prevent the transmission of a communication such as that
described above.
Another amendment introduced by Sen Patrick Leahy (D-VT), was also
approved, by voice vote, to provide for a study of the legal and technical
means of restricting access to obscenity on interactive telecommunications
systems.
It is now expected that a final vote on S.652 will be taken in the
Senate by 4 pm, Thursday afternoon, June 15, 1995.
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