Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2001 00:22:25 -0400
To: Matthew Gaylor <freematt@coil.com>
From: Matthew Gaylor <freematt@coil.com>
Subject: Who's Spying On Judges?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"

Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2001 12:20:05 -0400
From: "James M. Ray" <jray@free-market.net>
Subject:  WHO'S SPYING ON JUDGES?

WHO'S SPYING ON JUDGES?

Chamber Music
   by Jeffrey Rosen

The New Republic - Post date 08.30.01, Issue date 09.10.01

http://www.tnr.com/091001/rosen091001.html


Federal judges are about to make a crucial decision on
workplace privacy, but you won't read about it in a court
opinion. On September 11, the Judicial Conference of the
United States, the organization with ultimate authority over
the internal operation of the federal courts, will decide
whether to approve or dismantle a computer program that
monitors judges and their staff members when they use the
Internet on the job. Defenders of the program say judges
should accept the same invasions of privacy their decisions
have imposed on other American workers.

But the truth is that the courts haven't ruled definitively
on whether Internet browsing and e-mail should be treated as
public or private. And so the judges face a momentous
choice. If they turn off the monitoring software, the
members of the Judicial Conference--composed of 27 judges of
the federal appellate and district courts--can set an
example that will help other employers resist the relentless
expansion of Internet monitoring that is transforming the
American workplace. But if they meekly surrender their own
liberties, the judges will accelerate the entrenchment of a
surveillance state.

[...]


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