SENATE DOCKET, NO. 670        FILED ON: 1/15/2019

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 889

 

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

_________________

PRESENTED BY:

Cynthia Stone Creem

_________________

To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:

The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:

An Act relative to the use of administrative subpoenas to obtain telephone and internet records without judicial review.

_______________

PETITION OF:

 

Name:

District/Address:

 

Cynthia Stone Creem

First Middlesex and Norfolk

 

Jack Patrick Lewis

7th Middlesex

1/23/2019

Maria Duaime Robinson

6th Middlesex

1/28/2019

Thomas M. Stanley

9th Middlesex

1/28/2019

Joseph A. Boncore

First Suffolk and Middlesex

1/30/2019

Mike Connolly

26th Middlesex

1/30/2019

Sal N. DiDomenico

Middlesex and Suffolk

1/31/2019

Jennifer E. Benson

37th Middlesex

1/31/2019

Cindy F. Friedman

Fourth Middlesex

2/1/2019

Patricia D. Jehlen

Second Middlesex

2/1/2019

James K. Hawkins

2nd Bristol

2/7/2019

James B. Eldridge

Middlesex and Worcester

2/8/2019


SENATE DOCKET, NO. 670        FILED ON: 1/15/2019

SENATE  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  No. 889

By Ms. Creem, a petition (accompanied by bill, Senate, No. 889) of Cynthia Stone Creem, Jack Patrick Lewis, Maria Duaime Robinson, Thomas M. Stanley and other members of the General Court for legislation relative to the use of administrative subpoenas to obtain telephone and internet records without judicial review.  The Judiciary.

 

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts

 

_______________

In the One Hundred and Ninety-First General Court
(2019-2020)

_______________

 

An Act relative to the use of administrative subpoenas to obtain telephone and internet records without judicial review.

 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:
 

SECTION 1. Chapter 271 of the General Laws is hereby amended by inserting at the end of Section 17B, as appearing in the 2016 Official Edition, the following:-

On or before the first of March each year, the attorney general and each district attorney shall produce a report which shall indicate the following information for the previous calendar year:

a) the number of administrative subpoenas issued by the office, broken down by statutory offense being investigated;

b) the names of the common carriers and service providers subpoenaed, including the number of subpoenas directed to each;

c) the number of administrative subpoenas seeking transactional records spanning time periods less than 1 day, between 1 day and 1 week, between 1 week and 30 days, and greater than 30 days;

d) the number of administrative subpoenas requesting the following categories of information: (i) information that directly or incidentally reveals the physical location of the subscriber; (ii) information that reveals, or can readily be used to reveal, the identity of parties other than the subscriber; (iii) information that reveals the frequency of communications between two or more persons;  (iv) call detail logs or other records containing information about who the subscriber called, when, and the duration of the calls; or (v) banking, credit card, or other financial records.

e) the number of criminal prosecutions, charged by complaint or indictment, initiated after records were obtained in response to an administrative subpoena;

f) the number of criminal convictions secured after records obtained via administrative subpoena, or information derived from such records, were introduced in evidence; and

g) the number of motions filed to quash administrative subpoenas, and the number of such motions that were successful.

The reports from the attorney general and each district attorney shall be filed with the clerks of the Senate and the House of Representatives and with the executive office for administration and finance, which shall post them on the Commonwealth’s open data website to make them available as a public record. In the event of failure to comply with the provisions of this reporting provision, any person may compel compliance by means of an action of mandamus in superior court. If the court finds that such failure to comply represented a willful violation of this section, it may award the plaintiff the reasonable costs of litigation and attorney fees.