US Senators Ron Wyden (D-Oregon) and Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) have introduced a one-sentence piece of legislation to stop the proposed amendments to Rule 41:
“The proposed amendments to rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, which are set forth in the order entered by the Supreme Court of the United States on April 28, 2016, shall not take effect.”
The proposed amendments to Rule 41 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, recently approved by the US Supreme Court, would make it significantly easier for law enforcement agencies to remotely hack computers, networks, and other devices. Under the rule change, any magistrate judge would be empowered to issue warrants authorizing remote hacking activities by the government; all jurisdiction limitations would be removed.
US Senators Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin), Steven Daines (R-Montana), and Jon Tester (D-Montana), are Wyden’s bill’s original co-sponsors. A companion bill is expected in the US House of Representatives.
Wyden has published a detailed explainer of his position:
“For law enforcement to conduct a remote electronic search, they generally need to plant malware in – i.e., hack – a device. These rule changes will allow the government to search millions of computers with the warrant of a single judge. To me, that’s clearly a policy change that’s outside the scope of an ‘administrative change,’ and it is something that Congress should consider. An agency with the record of the Justice Department shouldn’t be able to wave its arms and grant itself entirely new powers.
[….]“… These changes would dramatically expand the government’s hacking and surveillance authority. The American public should understand that these changes won’t just affect criminals: Computer security experts and civil liberties advocates say the amendments would also dramatically expand the government’s ability to hack the electronic devices of law-abiding Americans if their devices were affected by a computer attack. Devices will be subject to search if their owners were victims of a botnet attack – so the government will be treating victims of hacking the same way they treat the perpetrators.”