{"id":10212,"date":"2016-10-31T13:42:16","date_gmt":"2016-10-31T17:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/?p=10212"},"modified":"2018-12-24T23:16:56","modified_gmt":"2018-12-25T04:16:56","slug":"ames-final-round-november-2016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/ames-final-round-november-2016\/","title":{"rendered":"Ames Final Round – November 2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ames Final Round Results:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Best Brief:\u00a0<\/strong>Daniel J. Meltzer Memorial Team<\/p>\n

Best Overall Team:\u00a0<\/strong>Daniel J. Meltzer Memorial Team<\/p>\n

Best Oralist:\u00a0<\/strong>Amanda Mundell<\/p>\n

The Teams:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The David J. Meltzer Memorial Team\u00a0<\/strong>(Petitioner):<\/p>\n

Connor Winn,\u00a0Oralist<\/i><\/div>\n
Benjamin Burkett
\nWilliam Ferraro
\nLuke Beasley
\nAmanda Mundell,\u00a0Oralist<\/i>
\nTrenton Van Oss<\/div>\n

The Lucy Stone Memorial Team\u00a0<\/strong>(Respondent):<\/p>\n

Michelle Adler<\/div>\n
Victoria Hartmann<\/div>\n
Helen Rave<\/div>\n
Caroline Trusty,\u00a0Oralist<\/i><\/div>\n
Stefanie Tubbs<\/div>\n
Mengjie Zou,\u00a0Oralist<\/i><\/div>\n

The Bench:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The Honorable John Paul Stevens<\/a>
\nAssociate Justice (Ret.)
\nSupreme Court of the United States<\/p>\n

The Honorable David J. Barron<\/a>
\nUnited States Court of Appeals
\nFirst Circuit<\/p>\n

The Honorable Alison J. Nathan<\/a>
\nUnited States District Court
\nSouthern District of New York<\/p>\n

The Case:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

United States v. Papaya Cellular<\/strong><\/p>\n

Between October 2015 and March 2016, residents of\u00a0Ames\u00a0suffered three deadly bombings at a night club, ice skating rink, and middle school.\u00a0 A terrorist organization calling itself \u201cRedemption\u201d claimed responsibility for the attacks and threatened additional acts of violence within\u00a0Ames.\u00a0 FBI investigators subsequently received an anonymous tip identifying an individual (known as \u201cJohn Doe\u201d because his name is redacted in public filings) as a member of Redemption and the person who possibly placed the bomb at one or more of the crime scenes.\u00a0 \u00a0In response to the tip, the government filed an application under the Stored Communications Act for an order directing Doe\u2019s cell phone provider, Papaya Cellular, to disclose Doe\u2019s cell site location information for a six-month period spanning the time of the terrorist attacks.\u00a0 In its application, the government said that the location data\u2014which is generated any time a subscriber uses his phone to make or receive a call, send or receive a text, or access any application requiring cellular data\u2014could help confirm Doe\u2019s location during the bombings and reveal other pertinent information about his and others\u2019 involvement in the deadly attacks.\u00a0 The district court initially ordered Papaya to disclose the cell site location records.<\/p>\n

Papaya moved to quash that order.\u00a0 As its CEO averred, its business model is built around protecting its subscribers\u2019 privacy.\u00a0 To that end, Papaya uses proprietary encryption software to aggregate all subscriber information for each cell site and strip it of individualized data that can be used to track the movements, habits, and personal lives of its subscribers.\u00a0 The district court had ordered Papaya to write software to disaggregate Doe\u2019s records from other subscribers\u2019 data.\u00a0 Papaya argued that compliance with that order would constitute an \u201cundue burden\u201d under the Stored Communications Act, 18 U.S.C. \u00a7 2703(d), because it would harm Papaya\u2019s privacy-focused business model, undermine Papaya\u2019s encryption technology, and violate Papaya\u2019s First Amendment right not to engage in the expressive act of writing software.\u00a0 Papaya also argued that compliance with the court\u2019s order would violate the Fourth Amendment by permitting the government to conduct an unreasonable, warrantless search without probable cause.<\/p>\n

The district court granted Papaya\u2019s motion to quash, and the\u00a0Ames\u00a0Circuit affirmed.\u00a0 The court of appeals held that compliance with the order would constitute an \u201cundue burden\u201d within the meaning of Section 2703(d) and would violate the Fourth Amendment.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court granted review on the following two questions<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Whether the court of appeals erred in concluding that it would cause an \u201cundue burden\u201d on Papaya Cellular, within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. 2703(d), to require it to write software to override its encryption technology and disaggregate a particular subscriber\u2019s historical cell site information to assist in an ongoing terrorism investigation.<\/p>\n

2.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Whether the court of appeals erred in concluding that disclosure of the historical cell site information would violate the Fourth Amendment.<\/p>\n

The Record:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Joint Appendix<\/a><\/p>\n

The Briefs:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Opening Brief for the United States<\/a>\u00a0(The David J. Meltzer Memorial Team)<\/p>\n

Respondent Brief for Papaya Cellular<\/a> (The Lucy Stone Memorial Team)<\/p>\n

Reply Brief<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0The Liveblog:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ames Final Round Results: Best Brief:\u00a0Daniel J. Meltzer Memorial Team Best Overall Team:\u00a0Daniel J. Meltzer Memorial Team Best Oralist:\u00a0Amanda Mundell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":10262,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1371,3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[896],"class_list":["post-10212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ames-live-blog","category-amicus"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/80\/2016\/10\/Austin_Hall_Harvard_Law_School.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peZrWS-2EI","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10212"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/journals.law.harvard.edu\/crcl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=10212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}