Internet Subpoenas

For the third year in a row, Affiliate lobbying helped defeat a bill, based in part on a USA Patriot Act provision, to give local law enforcement authorities broad authority to obtain from Internet service providers information, including bank and credit card information, of subscribers. In opposing the bill, the ACLU noted that the legislation allowed police to issue administrative subpoenas to ISP’s for this personal information without providing subscribers any chance to contest the request, and that the subscriber did not even have to be suspected of a crime in order for police to obtain the data. Passage seemed likely when the Senate passed the bill, and House Judiciary Committee approved it as well. However, the Affiliate mounted a heavy lobbying campaign, and the House ultimately recommitted the bill without voting on it.