Date: Tue, 14 Jan 92 18:45:21 EST
From: Jim Warren (
[email protected])
Subject: File 7--*DRAFT* "Guaranteeing Constitutional Freedoms"
*This is a **draft***. (I am working on additional phrasing
regarding computerized access to computerized legislation-in-progress,
so we may be citizens effectly informed of the legislative process. I
also have some thoughts about enhancing citizen's access to their
personal information that is collected and shared by government
agencies.
If you wish a copy of the final version for your own modification,
use and/or personal or group political action, please e-mail your
request to:
[email protected] --or--
[email protected] .
*************************
GUARANTEEING CONSTITUTIONAL FREEDOMS INTO THE 21st CENTURY
Harvard Law Professor Laurence H. Tribe, one of the nation's leading
Constitutional scholars, views technological threats to our
constitutional freedoms and rights as so serious that, for the first
time in his career, he has proposed a Constitutional Amendment:
"This Constitution's protections for the freedoms of speech, press,
petition and assembly, and its protections against unreasonable
searches and seizures and the deprivation of life, liberty or property
without due process of law, should be construed as fully applicable
without regard to generated, stored, altered, transmitted or
controlled."
Until and unless the unlikely event that such an Amendment is
adopted, legislation and regulation are the only alternatives to
assure modern protection of citizens against modern technological
threats against their constitutional rights and freedoms.
PERSONAL COMMITMENT TO ACTION
PREFACE: It has been over two centuries since our Constitution and
Bill of Rights were adopted. The great technological change in the
interum --especially in computing, telecommunications and electronics
-- now poses a clear and present danger to the rights and protections
guaranteed in those great documents. Therefore:
will author or coauthor legislation reflecting the following
specifics, and I will actively support and testify in favor of any
similar legislation as may be introduced by others. Further, I will
actively seek to have included in such legislation, explicit personal
civil and/or criminal penalties against any agent, employee or
official of the government who violates any of these statutes. And
finally, I will keep all citizens who express interest in legislative
progress on these matters fully and timely informed.
The protections guaranteed in the Constitution and its Amendments
shall be fully applicable regardless of the current technology of the
time. In particular:
SPEECH: Freedom of speech shall be equally protected, whether by
voice or written as in the 18th Century, or by electronic transmission
or computer communication as in the 20th Century and thereafter.
PRESS: Freedom of the press shall be equally protected, whether by
print as in the 18th Century, or by computer distribution of
information, as in the 20th Century and thereafter.
ASSEMBLY: Freedom of assembly shall be equally protected, whether
by face-to-face meeting as in the 18th Century, or by computer-based
conference as in the 20th Century and thereafter. The right to hold
confidential meetings shall be equally protected, whether they be by
personal meeting in private chambers, or by computer-based private
conferences.
SELF-PROTECTION: The right of the people to keep and use computers
and communications equipment and connections shall not be abridged by
the government.
SEARCH & SEIZURE: The right of the people to be secure in their
papers and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall
be fully applicable to their electronic mail, computerized information
and personal computer systems.
WARRANTS: No warrants for search or seizure shall issue for
computerized information, but upon probable cause, supported by oath
or affirmation, and particularly describing the computer system to be
searched and the specific information to be seized.
SECURE INFORMATION VAULTS: Just as search and seizure of letters in
a post-office, and papers in a bank-vault lock-box, and surveillance
of a telephone conversations by wire-tap each require a separate
warrant for each postal address, lock-box and telephone line, so also
shall a separate warrant be required for electronic mail or other
computer files of each suspect, when stored in a computer facility
shared by others, and such files stored in a shared facility by or for
a citizen who is neither named in a warrant nor associated with a
suspect so-named, may not be used against that citizen, if seized or
discovered during legal search of or for files of a suspect.
SELF-INCRIMINATION: No person shall be compelled in any civil or
criminal case to be a witness against himself or herself, nor be
compelled to translate or decode computerized information that may be
so incriminating.
PRIVATE PROPERTY: Private property shall not be taken for public use
without just compensation, nor shall it be used nor sold by the
government for less than fair market value, in which case all such
proceeds shall promptly derive singularly to its owner prior to
government seizure.
SPEEDY RELEASE: Anyone not accused of a crime shall enjoy the right
to a speedy release and return of all of their property in undamaged
form, as may be seized under any warrant, particularly including their
computerized information.
_________________________ title/office/office sought
_________________________ address
_________________________
_________________________
_________________________ campaign-office voice-phone number
_________________________ campaign-office electronic-mail address
Downloaded From P-80 International Information Systems 304-744-2253
