Image: CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 / b00nj

The Guardian reported in December that courts in Norwich and Norfolk, England are testing the use during trial of tablet computers by prosecutors.  The devices “will contain all the evidence and documentation needed to conduct court hearings,” according to the article.  If the pilot is successful, the devices will roll out across courts in England and Wales beginning in April.  The government “hopes the tablets will save at least £50m [approx. $79 million] … by the time of the next parliament.”

One feature of the new tablet system is the ability of the police to electronically deliver evidence and other information directly to prosecutors.  One barrister commented that ”[a]nything that can make the criminal justice system more efficient and give the public better value for money is to be welcomed.”  Eventually, tablets will also be provided for use by juries, judges, and defense lawyers.

The use of electronic devices may be especially disorienting in British courts: the same barrister noted that the tablets will provide attorneys with “everything that they need, apart from their wig and gown of course.”

Image: cc-by / David Ortez (Flickr)

Justice Sotomayor joined in the opinion, and wrote separately to discuss the unique attributes of GPS monitoring and how police monitoring of civilians may affect our democratic society.

Justice Alito concurred in judgment and wrote a separate opinion arguing that the case should be decided based on the more modern “reasonable expectations of privacy” test. This concurring opinion argued that short-term monitoring of a suspect’s vehicle would not violate such expectations, but long term monitoring would violate them. It explained, “In this case, for four weeks, law enforcement agents tracked every movement that respondent made in the vehicle he was driving. We need not identify with precision the point at which the tracking of this vehicle became a search, for the line was surely crossed before the 4-week mark.”

Each approach certainly leaves much of the law undecided. Under the minority view, it is unclear at what point the line would be “crossed” and police monitoring of a suspect’s car would constitute a “search.” Under the majority view, which is now binding precedent, it is unclear what the result would be if the police were able to track a car via GPS without physically intruding on the vehicle.

Image: CC BY-NC 2.0 / S.E.B.

• Congress is working on a number of new laws dealing with national security and access to computer data.
• The founder of the file-sharing website MegaUpload was arrested in New Zealand. The FBI has taken control of the MegaUpload web domain.
• Congress has delayed voting on the controversial Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect Intellectual Property Act after concerted protests from the online community. Many popular sites, including Google and Wikipedia, “censored” themselves to protest the bill.