Internet Subpoenas

Basic privacy rights were protected for another year, thanks to ACLU lobbying that helped bottle up in committee a perennial State Police proposal to give law enforcement officials broad authority to secretly obtain, without a warrant or even a showing of “probable cause,” subscriber calling records and financial information from telephone and Internet service providers. The bill has passed the Senate in past years, only to die in the House. Revelations at the federal level regarding the National Security Agency telephone spying scandal made even the Senate wary of passing the legislation this year. Unfortunately, though, the bill is expected to return in 2008.