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Week Ending July. 9, 2004

HR 1303 amending the E-Government Act or 2002 with respect to rulemaking authority of the Judicial Conference.

BRIEF

   Because more and more frequently information on individuals is available on the Internet from court filings and other data sources the matter of privacy and identity theft has been raised. The bill would require the Judicial Conference of the US to develop and apply rules to address privacy and security concerns relating to electronic filing of documents and their availability to the public electronically.

  The bill would also provide for court rules that would allow parties in a Federal court proceeding to file a reference list of complete or partially edited versions of protected data such as Social Security numbers, account numbers and other identifiers. The actual data would be sealed and protected.

  The Department of Justice expressed some concerns that the rulings as proposed might complicate the process of presenting evidence to courts and juries but the bill’s final version was written to ensure ‘that the DOJ will have the ability to access all necessary information to prosecute crimes through the uniform application of privacy rules.’

Sponsor: Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX-21^st)

Vote:  Passed House by voice vote (Oct. 7, 2003) Passed Senate by Unanimous Consent (July 9, 2004) UpDate:  Became Public Law 108-281 (August 8, 2004) 

Cost to the taxpayers:  No discernible cost.

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