EFF Stands with Perkins Coie and the Rule of Law

4 weeks 1 day ago

As a legal organization that has fought in court to defend the rights of technology users for almost 35 years, including numerous legal challenges to federal government overreach, Electronic Frontier Foundation unequivocally supports Perkins Coie’s challenge to the Trump administration’s shocking, vindictive, and unconstitutional Executive Order. In punishing the law firm for its zealous advocacy on behalf of its clients, the order offends the First Amendment, the rule of law, and the legal profession broadly in numerous ways. We commend Perkins Coie (and its legal representatives) for fighting back. 

Lawsuits against the federal government are a vital component of the system of checks and balances that undergirds American democracy. They reflect a confidence in both the judiciary to decide such matters fairly and justly, and the executive to abide by the court’s determination. They are a backstop against autocracy and a sustaining feature of American jurisprudence since Marbury v. Madison, 5 U.S. 137 (1803).  

The Executive Order, if enforced, would upend that system and set an appalling precedent: Law firms that represent clients adverse to a given administration can and will be punished for doing their jobs.  

This is a fundamental abuse of executive power. 

The constitutional problems are legion, but here are a few:  

  • The First Amendment bars the government from “distorting the legal system by altering the traditional role of attorneys” by controlling what legal arguments lawyers can make. See Legal Services Corp. v. Velasquez, 531 U.S. 533, 544 (2001). “An informed independent judiciary presumes an informed, independent bar.” Id. at 545. 
  • The Executive Order is also unconstitutional retaliation for Perkins Coie’s engaging in constitutionally protected speech during the course of representing its clients. See Nieves v. Bartlett, 587 U.S. 391, 398 (2019).  
  • And the Executive Order functions as an illegal loyalty oath for the entire legal profession, conditioning access to federal courthouses or client relationships with government contractors on fealty to the executive branch, including forswearing protected speech in opposition to it. That condition is blatantly unlawful:  The government cannot require that those it works with or hires embrace certain political beliefs or promise that they have “not engaged, or will not engage, in protected speech activities such as … criticizing institutions of government.”  See Cole v. Richardson, 405 U.S. 676, 680 (1972)

Civil liberties advocates such as EFF rely on the rule of law and access to the courts to vindicate their clients’, and the public’s, fundamental rights. From this vantage point, we can see that this Executive Order is nothing less than an attack on the foundational principles of American democracy.  

The Executive Order must be swiftly nullified by the court and uniformly vilified by the entire legal profession.

Click here for the number to listen in on a hearing on a temporary restraining order, scheduled for 2pmET/11amPT Wednesday, March 12.

David Greene

【支部リポート】福岡 障害ある人にも映画を 「みらいシネマ福岡」設立=白垣 詔男

4 weeks 1 day ago
 2021年度にJCJ賞を受賞した、植村隆さんの裁判を中心に描いた映画「標的」の監督・製作を務めた福岡支部会員・西嶋真司さんが、昨年末、「すべての人生に映画の感動を」と銘打って特定非営利活動法人「みらいシネマ福岡」を設立した。 同法人の創立趣意書には「私たちが暮らす社会には様々な人々がいます。この社会は多数を占める健常者に都合のいいように造られてきました。視覚障がい者や聴覚障がい者にとって、映画館で映画の感動に接する機会は決して多くありません。…(この団体は)音声ガイドや字幕..
JCJ

Anchorage Police Department: AI-Generated Police Reports Don’t Save Time

4 weeks 1 day ago

The Anchorage Police Department (APD) has concluded its three-month trial of Axon’s Draft One, an AI system that uses audio from body-worn cameras to write narrative police reports for officers—and has decided not to retain the technology. Axon touts this technology as “force multiplying,” claiming it cuts in half the amount of time officers usually spend writing reports—but APD disagrees.

The APD deputy chief told Alaska Public Media, “We were hoping that it would be providing significant time savings for our officers, but we did not find that to be the case.” The deputy chief flagged that the time it took officers to review reports cut into the time savings from generating the report.  The software translates the audio into narrative, and officers are expected to read through the report carefully to edit it, add details, and verify it for authenticity. Moreover, because the technology relies on audio from body-worn cameras, it often misses visual components of the story that the officer then has to add themselves. “So if they saw something but didn’t say it, of course, the body cam isn’t going to know that,” the deputy chief continued.

The Anchorage Police Department is not alone in claiming that Draft One is not a time saving device for officers. A new study into police using AI to write police reports, which specifically tested Axon’s Draft One, found that AI-assisted report-writing offered no real time-savings advantage.

This news comes on the heels of policymakers and prosecutors casting doubt on the utility or accuracy of AI-created police reports. In Utah, a pending state bill seeks to make it mandatory for departments to disclose when reports have been written by AI. In King County, Washington, the Prosecuting Attorney’s Office has directed officers not to use any AI tools to write narrative reports.

In an era where companies that sell technology to police departments profit handsomely and have marketing teams to match, it can seem like there is an endless stream of press releases and local news stories about police acquiring some new and supposedly revolutionary piece of tech. But what we don’t usually get to see is how many times departments decide that technology is costly, flawed, or lacks utility. As the future of AI-generated police reports rightly remains hotly contested, it’s important to pierce the veil of corporate propaganda and see when and if police departments actually find these costly bits of tech useless or impractical.

Matthew Guariglia

Hawaii Takes a Stand for Privacy: HCR 144/HR 138 Calls for Investigation of Crisis Pregnancy Centers

4 weeks 2 days ago

In a bold push for medical privacy, Hawaii's House of Representatives has introduced HCR 144/HR 138, a resolution calling for the Hawaii Attorney General to investigate whether crisis pregnancy centers (CPCs) are violating patient privacy laws. 

Often referred to as "fake clinics" or “unregulated pregnancy centers” (UPCs), these are non-medical centers that provide  free pregnancy tests and counseling, but typically do not offer essential reproductive care like abortion or contraception. In Hawaii, these centers outnumber actual clinics offering abortion and reproductive healthcare. In fact, the first CPC in the United States was opened in Hawaii in 1967 by Robert Pearson, who then founded the Pearson Foundation, a St. Louis-based organization to assist local groups in setting up unregulated crisis pregnancy centers. 

EFF has called on state AGs to investigate CPCs across the country. In particular, we are concerned that many centers have misrepresented their privacy practices, including suggesting that patient information is protected by HIPAA when it may not be. In January, EFF contacted attorneys general in Florida, Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri asking them to identify and hold accountable CPCs that engage in deceptive practices.

Rep. Kapela’s resolution specifically references EFF’s call on state Attorneys General. It reads:

“WHEREAS, the Electronic Frontiers Foundation, an international digital rights nonprofit that promotes internet civil liberties, has called on states to investigate whether crisis pregnancy centers are complying with patient privacy regulations with regard to the retention and use of collected patient data.” 

HCR 144/HR 138 underscores the need to ensure that healthcare providers handle personal data, particularly medical data, securely and transparently.. Along with EFF’s letters to state AGs, the resolution refers to the increasing body of research on the topic, such as: 

  • A 2024 Healthcare Management Associates Study showed that CPCs received $400 million in federal funding between 2017 and 2023, with little oversight from regulators.
  • A Health Affairs article from November 2024 titled "Addressing the HIPAA Blind Spot for Crisis Pregnancy Centers" noted that crisis pregnancy centers often invoke the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) to collect personal information from clients.

Regardless of one's stance on reproductive healthcare, there is one principle that should be universally accepted: the right to privacy. As HCR 144/HR 138 moves forward, it is imperative that Hawaii's Attorney General investigate whether CPCs are complying with privacy regulations and take action, if necessary, to protect the privacy rights of individuals seeking reproductive healthcare in Hawaii. 

Without comprehensive privacy laws that offer individuals a private right of action, state authorities must be the front line in safeguarding the privacy of their constituents. As we continue to advocate for stronger privacy protections nationwide, we encourage lawmakers and advocates in other states to follow Hawaii's lead and take action to protect the medical privacy rights of all of their constituents.

Rindala Alajaji