Category: Legal Blog

In 2010, Mr. Packingham, a person listed on the sex offender registry, posted on Facebook a note of gratitude to thank God for having a traffic ticket dismissed. After a police officer saw his post, Packingham was prosecuted and convicted under a North Carolina law that made it a felony for a convicted sex offender to use social-networking websites which allow minors to create profiles. Today, the Supreme Court agreed with him that the North Carolina law violates the Constitution’s guarantee of freedom of speech.

In 2012, I represented Mr. Packingham and filed a motion to dismiss because the statute infringed upon the First Amendment right of free speech. Today in an 8-0 decision, the USSC agreed. Justice Kennedy began by outlining what he described as a “fundamental principle of the First Amendment”: that everyone should “have access to places where they can speak and listen, and then, after reflection, speak and listen once more.” And even if once it may have been hard to determine which places are “the most important” “for the exchange of views,” Kennedy concluded, it isn’t hard now. Instead, he reasoned, it is “clear” that the Internet and, in particular, social media provide such opportunities.

He wrote that North Carolina’s law stifled “lawful speech as the means to suppress unlawful speech.” By barring sex offenders from using social-networking sites, he continued, the state “with one broad stroke bars access to what for many are the principal sources for knowing current events, checking ads for employment, speaking and listening in the modern public square, and otherwise exploring the vast realms of human thought and knowledge.” “In sum,” Kennedy concluded, “to foreclose access to social media altogether is to prevent the user from engaging in the legitimate exercise of First Amendment rights.”

This case is important because it “is one of the first this Court has taken to address the relationship between the First Amendment and the modern Internet.” Justice Kennedy warned that the court should “exercise extreme caution before suggesting that the First Amendment provides scant protection for access” to ubiquitous social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter.

In 2012, I represented Lester Packingham in the Durham county court and argued pretrial that a North Carolina law prohibiting registered sex offenders from accessing social networking websites was an unconstitutional infringement on his First Amendment rights. The judge denied the motion and the case was appealed. On appeal, the NC Appellate Court agreed with my argument but the NC Supreme did not. The case was accepted by the US Supreme Court and oral argument was heard on February 27, 2017. This is the link for the oral argument: www.supremecourt.gov/oral_arguments/argument_transcripts/2016/15-1194_0861.pdf.

The New York Times reported:
“A Supreme Court argument on Monday about whether North Carolina may bar registered sex offenders from using Facebook, Twitter and similar services turned into a discussion of how thoroughly social media have transformed American civic discourse.The justices’ remarks, which indicated easy familiarity with the major social media services, suggested that they would strike down the North Carolina law under the First Amendment. Justice Elena Kagan said that President Trump, every governor and every member of Congress has a Twitter account.’So this has become a crucially important channel of political communication,” she said. “And a person couldn’t go onto those sites and find out what these members of our government are thinking or saying or doing.'”(www.nytimes.com/2017/02/27/us/politics/supreme-court-north-carolina-sex-offenders-social-media.html.)

I will post a new blog entry when this case is decided but it appears that the justices recognize the importance of access to websites in 21st century life.

“Alexa, play Beyonce.” “Alexa, what is the playing at the Southpoint cinemas?” “Alexa, how many cups are in a liter?” These commands and others posed to Alexa, a voice activated service created by Amazon can be easily become a little slice of the space-aged Jetson’s smart home in your daily world. But is Alexa a spy? Is there a record of what is said? Is this seemingly private “interaction” not so private and why do I care?

In the pending murder case of James Bates of Bentonville, Arkansas, the question of whether statements of Mr. Bates were recorded and could be used as evidence used against him in his pending murder case is at issue. Mr. Bates had an Alexa voice activated system in his home at the time Victor Collins’ body was found in Mr. Bates’ hot tub. Mr. Bates proffered explanations for how this occurred which didn’t jive with the physical evidence. Prosecutors served a warrant on Amazon to obtain any recordings made by Alexa and stored by Amazon which would aid in the prosecution’s case-in-chief or provide impeachment against Mr. Bates. If the warrant is not quashed, would there be anything incriminating to discover? The answer is that there are recordings made and preserved by Amazon which could be used to defeat or support Mr. Bates’ version of the facts.

What is Alexa, exactly? Alexa is an intelligent voice control service which in this case was connected to a small tower called Echo which is a Bluetooth speaker with a seven-piece microphone array. Alexa is described as a “passive listening device” which means that Alexa listens but does not record anything until she hears the activation word or wake word “Alexa”. Once the word “Alexa” is said, a small amount of audio content preceding the wake word and all content thereafter is streamed to Amazon’s network of connected computers where it is processed and stored. The audio record then lives in Amazon’s storage or Cloud until it is the subject of a subpoena or warrant or until you delete it.

In the Bates case, Alexa could have recorded evidence in the following ways: (1) all voice commands made to Alexa by Mr. Bates or anyone in his home would be recorded. (2) conversations between persons inside Mr. Bates’ home would be recorded if they were simultaneous to an Alexa voice command. (3) If the command required a significant period of time to achieve compliance such as, “Alexa, tell me when 20 minutes elapses” could result in all conversations occurring in the room being recorded until the Alexa task is completed.

Obviously any command or other function requested by Mr. Bates or the victim such as calendaring an event, purchasing an item, or linking up with another smart home service which conflicts with the defense’s version of the timeline of occurrences is problematic. As smart home and intelligent assistants functions assume a larger role in our lives be aware that a record is stored and even if you request deletion, there is no realistic way to ensure it is completed.

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The default activation word is “Alexa.”
“With far-field voice recognition, Echo can hear you ask a question from any direction—even while playing music.” (Amazon website)
For the complete list of Alexa commands see: www.cnet.com/how-to/the-complete-list-of-alexa-commands/