1. How does the U.S. Justice Department differ from the U.S. Marshals Service in their description of the use of cellphone surveillance technology?

2. a) Define classified.
b) What does the classified designation suggest?

3. a) What is the role of the DOJ?
b) What is the role of the USMS?

4. a) What are cell-site simulators? Be specific.
b) How much did the Marshals Service pay over 5 years for these devices?

5. How/why does the Marshals Service use cell-site simulators?

6. What is notable about the Marshals’ designation of some of their technology and techniques as classified?

7. What has the U.S. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee said about DOJ’s use of technology?

8. Re-read para. 16-20. Then read the following:

• From paragraph 11: “Until 2015, federal law-enforcement officials refused to discuss details of the technology or its use. After the Wall Street Journal and other media reported on the technology, Justice Department officials have defended its use as a legal method approved by judges and have said the Marshals aren’t engaged in spying or intelligence activity.”
• Nathan Freed Wessler, an ACLU lawyer, said the government should provide more information for the sake of transparency. “The government has gone to great lengths to hide its surveillance activities from the public, thereby frustrating judicial oversight and democratic accountability,” he said. “It should not be this difficult to uncover basic facts about surveillance programs that should have been voluntarily revealed to courts and subjected to public scrutiny.”
• From para. 21: Last year, the Justice Department said it was creating new legal safeguards on its use of the technology, including a requirement that agents get a search warrant when using the devices.
• From Wikipedia:  A search warrant is a court order that a magistrate, judge or Supreme Court official issues to authorize law enforcement officers to conduct a search of a person, location, or vehicle for evidence of a crime and to confiscate any evidence they find. In most countries a search warrant cannot be issued in aid of civil process. Jurisdictions that respect the rule of law and a right to privacy constrain police powers, and typically require search warrants or an equivalent procedure for searches police conducted in the course of a criminal investigation. The laws usually make an exception for hot pursuit: a police officer following a criminal who has fled the scene of a crime has the right to enter a property where the criminal has sought shelter. This contrasts with authoritarian regimes, where police typically can search property and people without having to provide justification or secure court permission.

a) Do you think the Marshals' use of the cell-site technology should remain classified if they do not have judicial oversight in the form of a search warrant? Explain your answer.

b) Many people say that they are not breaking the law, so they don’t care if law enforcement scans their cell phones, etc. What do you think?