Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Fall Semester, 2010
MIT 6.805/STS085: Ethics and Law on the Electronic Frontier
Preparation for class on October 18
Moot Court: The Friendly Subpoena
Francisco Teller v. United States
Class on October 18 will be devoted to a moot court, which includes
roles for everyone in the class.
Look here to see your role.
Readings
All the 4th Amendment cases we've studied are potentially relevant
to the proceedings. You should review these and be prepared draw upon them
in your arguments before the Court and during your press conference.
Writings
There is no writing assignment to turn in before class. On the
other hand, you will certainly need to prepare notes for yourself to
support your role during the proceedings.
- The Appellee, Appellants, and the amici arguing before the
court should prepare their arguments. You'll need to cover:
- statement of the relevant facts
- the legal issue to be resolved
- argument in support of your position, citing relevant cases and
using facts as needed.
- You should not make up any additional facts, but you can
point to examples of information that might have been
included in the records obtained by the government in the case,
and discuss their Fourth Amendment significance.
- The amici should also have a statement of why
your organization is interested in the outcome.
Coordinate as you are preparing these so that you don't all cover
the same arguments. Pay attention to how much time you'll have
to present.
Remember that the judges can and will interrupt you with questions, and that
these interruptions count as part of your time!
- Judges: prepare a summary for yourself of the issues in the case, with two
questions for each side.
- Frontline Reporter -- You'll need to present an
introductory report for the Frontline audience (see proceedings below), so prepare that.
Your report should cover the
larger
significance of the case, legally, technically, and socially.
- Washington Post Reporter: You'll need to quickly write
up and present a news
article after the decision, so write a background summary now, and prepare
questions
you plan to ask the parties and the amici.
Francisco Teller v. United States
Facts
In May 2012, the United Stated Attorney for the District of Columbia
became suspicious about improper "bundling" of Presidential campaign
contributions by a group called Deadhand Cyber-Patriots Political
Action Committee (DHCP PAC), a far right advocacy group that raises
funds for candidates in Congressional and Presidential campaigns.
Bundling is the practice of collection small amounts of money from a
large number of individuals and then directing those funds toward
particular candidates chosen by the PAC. Under the terms of new
campaign finance law (McCain-Feingold II), bundling activity by
political action committees must be disclosed to the Federal Election
Commission (FEC) and is subject to an aggregate limit of $100,000 per
candidate per PAC. The law requires monthly disclosure filings by PACs
engaged in bundling activities along with general reports of an
organizations campaign contributions.
Francisco Teller, the Chief Executive Officer of DHCP PAC was also its
main fundraiser, bringing in over $250,000 per month directed to a
variety of candidates in bundled contributions. Teller's principal
fundraising tool is Facebook. He uses his network of over 15,000
"friends" to encourage small contributions to DHCP. DHCP PAC has also
commissioned a Facebook app, Bundler, that can be used by individuals
to build their own networks of fundraising sources. Most of the money
raised by the DHCP PAC through Mr. Teller was collected through
Bundler.
During the course of investigating DHCP PAC and the actions of Mr.
Teller, the FBI contacted Facebook and requested records of the names
of all of Mr. Teller's friends. A separate subpoena was also served on
the operator of the Bundler app, seeking the friend links recorded by
that application and the amounts of money contributed by each
individual in the networks.
Facebook turned the information over to the FBI, and Bundler complied
with the subpoena. Based on the friendship connections, Mr. Teller was
convicted in Federal District Court of 15,000 counts of violating
Federal campaign finance laws.
Teller is appealing his conviction.
Issue presented
Whether government collection of friend link information violated the
Fourth Amendment rights of Mr. Teller?
Proceedings
The Court indicated that it will hear oral arguments on the matter
rom the Appellant and U.S. Attorney.
Each party will have 30 minutes to argue its case. The
Court will also accept arguments from amicus curiae (friends of the court)
including a coalition of civil liberties organizations and a coalition of
public and private law enforcement organizations. In a
departure from standard Court procedure, some of the amici will be
permitted to present their arguments orally before the Court, rather
than as written briefs.
During the course of the arguments, each judge will be expected to ask
at least one question of each side.
Following the oral arguments, the judges will retire and formulate their
decision, to be announced in open court along with a summary of the legal
reasoning supporting the decision.
Immediately after the decision is announced, the amici will hold a press
conference, followed by a summary of the day's events from the New York
Times.
Schedule
18 October 18
| 7:00 - 7:20 |
Preparation |
| 7:20 - 7:25 |
Frontline - Background piece for the public |
| 7:25 |
Oral Arguments commence
|
| 7:25 - 7:50 |
Appellant's case.
5 minutes each for
each attorney,
and 5 minutes each for three of the amici (see roles) |
| 7:50 - 8:10 |
Appellee - U.S. Attorney's office.
5 minutes for
each Assistant U.S. Attorney.
and 5 minutes each for each of the other two amici (see roles) |
| 8:10 - 8:30 |
Judges deliberate |
| 8:30 - 8:40 |
Chief Judge announces opinion with reasons
dissents and concurrences |
| 8:40 - 9:00 |
break |
| 9:00 - 9:15 |
press conference with statements from amici (3 min each) |
| 9:15 - 9:25 |
Report from the Washington Post |
| 9:25 - |
wrap-up and discussion |