Exploring New Approaches to Unsettled Legal Questions

Tag: William B. Spong Jr. Tournament

The New Panopticon: Location Tracking and the Fourth Amendment

by Hogan Paschal*

Does war­rant­less, pro­longed loca­tion track­ing vio­late the Fourth Amendment’s pro­tec­tions against unrea­son­able search­es? Hogan Paschal (’17) exam­ines this ques­tion, based on her expe­ri­ence at the 2016 Spong Moot Court Tour­na­ment, host­ed by William & Mary Law School on Feb­ru­ary 12–13th, 2016. The loca­tion track­ing tools employed by Gov­ern­ment inves­ti­ga­tors have become more sophis­ti­cat­ed and wide­spread, often erod­ing the prac­ti­cal con­straints that gov­ern­ment resources pre­vi­ous­ly imposed on search pow­er. This Con­tri­bu­tion posits a more holis­tic read­ing of the Fourth Amend­ment, that simul­ta­ne­ous­ly acknowl­edges its his­tor­i­cal con­text and mod­ern inves­tiga­tive chal­lenges. Ulti­mate­ly, it argues that courts should restore Fourth Amend­ment safe­guards by requir­ing a war­rant as a pre­cur­sor to the government’s use of pro­longed loca­tion tracking.

Hacking from the Inside-Out: Can the CFAA Impose Liability on Employees who Misuse Employer Data?

by Susan­na Grif­fith*

Can an employ­ee who has accessed com­put­er data­base infor­ma­tion in vio­la­tion of use restric­tions and direct instruc­tions from his employ­er be con­vict­ed under the Com­put­er Fraud and Abuse Act for access­ing data “with­out autho­riza­tion” or “exceed[ing] autho­rized access”? Susan­na Grif­fith (’17) reflects on this ques­tion, based on her expe­ri­ence at the 2016 Spong Moot Court Tour­na­ment, host­ed by William & Mary Law School. Her Con­tri­bu­tion dis­cuss­es the legal land­scape and cir­cuit split regard­ing the applic­a­bil­i­ty of the statute to employ­ees who have vio­lat­ed use restric­tions and direc­tives from employ­ers. The Con­tri­bu­tion argues that the nar­row, code-based view is prefer­able as the clear­ly con­sti­tu­tion­al read­ing that also com­ports with stan­dards of excel­lence in the field of cyber-security.

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