MEMORANDUM

FROM: The students of CPSC 185: Control, Privacy, and Technology 
TO: The Federal Judges of the United States of America
SUBJECT: Increasing your technology acumen. 
DATE: May 9th, 2011 

We write to you today to express our frustration and fear over a series of recent judicial 
decisions. For the past year, we (24 students) have been studying the intersection of law 
and technology, focusing specifically on how one’s 4th amendment protections relate to 
the invasive features of modern innovations. Throughout our study, we have discovered 
one overarching trend – several federally appointed justices know little about how 
technology actually works. Failing to understand the scope of our ever-increasing 
technological world, several cases in recent years (US v. Arnold, People v. Diaz, and 
State v. Smith) make assumptions, generalizations, and conclusions that are not founded 
in fact, and have potentially dangerous ramifications. We write to you today calling for a 
new system of legal education; a system that recognizes societal trends, and understands 
that technology has become an inextricable facet of our legal world. In order to make the 
most informed decisions, we need justices who have, at the very least, a rudimentary 
understanding of the technological landscape. 

This is not to say that justices must become fluent in all things technology. No one sitting 
on the federal bench has to possess the talents and skills to work at Apple’s genius bar or 
Microsoft’s IT department. Rather, we are making simpler requests, like ensuring that 
justices can differentiate between a cell phone and a pack of cigarettes (People v. Diaz). 
We want judges who understand the powerful capabilities of computers, and can confer 
upon them the same level of privacy protection that the courts currently place on a home 
(US v. Arnold). All told, we are not asking for that much – simply a basic understanding 
of society’s most important technological capabilities.  

The way to achieve this goal is threefold. First, we must strengthen our legal education 
system, placing a greater emphasis on technology and the growing role it plays in our 
legal interpretation. Second, current justices must make strident efforts to understand the 
technology embedded in cases that they hear from the bench, whether that be through 
memorandums, briefs, discussions with clerks, or consultations with outside sources. The 
third approach relies on the general populace. In general, they must call justices out when 
a decision lacks an understanding of basic technology. Either through appeals to their 
representatives, or the judicial offices themselves, citizens must make clear that the 
opinions which the judges are constructing do not always fall under what society would 
deem “objectively reasonable” to protect. With a greater commitment to understanding 
the technological world, the federal judiciary can help usher in a new era, and a new 
doctrine of law. We thank you for your time, and look forward to watching what comes 
next.