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HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 420 FILED ON: 1/12/2023
HOUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 1769
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
_________________
PRESENTED BY:
William M. Straus
_________________
To the Honorable Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts in General
Court assembled:
The undersigned legislators and/or citizens respectfully petition for the adoption of the accompanying bill:
An Act relative to the use of administrative subpoenas to obtain telephone and internet records
without judicial review.
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PETITION OF:
NAME:DISTRICT/ADDRESS :DATE ADDED:William M. Straus10th Bristol1/12/2023 1 of 3
HOUSE DOCKET, NO. 420 FILED ON: 1/12/2023
HOUSE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . No. 1769
By Representative Straus of Mattapoisett, a petition (accompanied by bill, House, No. 1769) of
William M. Straus relative to the use of administrative subpoenas to obtain telephone and
internet records without judicial review. The Judiciary.
[SIMILAR MATTER FILED IN PREVIOUS SESSION
SEE HOUSE, NO. 1877 OF 2021-2022.]
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts
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In the One Hundred and Ninety-Third General Court
(2023-2024)
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An Act relative to the use of administrative subpoenas to obtain telephone and internet records
without judicial review.
Whereas, The deferred operation of this act would tend to defeat its purpose, which is to
regulate administrative subpoenas, therefore it is hereby declared to be an emergency law,
necessary for the immediate preservation of the public safety.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court assembled, and by the authority
of the same, as follows:
1 SECTION 1. Section 17B of chapter 271 of the General Laws, as appearing in the 2016
2Official Edition, is hereby amended by inserting at the end thereof the following:-
3 On or before the first of March each year, the attorney general and each district attorney
4shall produce a report which shall indicate the following information for the previous calendar
5year:
6 a) the number of administrative subpoenas issued by the office, broken down by
7statutory offense being investigated; 2 of 3
8 b) the names of the common carriers and service providers subpoenaed, including
9the number of subpoenas directed to each;
10 c) the number of administrative subpoenas seeking transactional records spanning
11time periods less than 1 day, between 1 day and 1 week, between 1 week and 30 days, and
12greater than 30 days;
13 d) the number of administrative subpoenas requesting the following categories of
14information: (i) information that directly or incidentally reveals the physical location of the
15subscriber; (ii) information that reveals, or can readily be used to reveal, the identity of parties
16other than the subscriber; (iii) information that reveals the frequency of communications between
17two or more persons; (iv) call detail logs or other records containing information about who the
18subscriber called, when, and the duration of the calls; or (v) banking, credit card, or other
19financial records.
20 e) the number of criminal prosecutions, charged by complaint or indictment,
21initiated after records were obtained in response to an administrative subpoena;
22 f) the number of criminal convictions secured after records obtained via
23administrative subpoena, or information derived from such records, were introduced in evidence;
24and
25 g) the number of motions filed to quash administrative subpoenas, and the number of
26such motions that were successful.
27 The reports from the attorney general and each district attorney shall be filed with the
28clerks of the Senate and the House of Representatives and with the executive office for 3 of 3
29administration and finance, which shall post them on the Commonwealth’s open data website to
30make them available as a public record. In the event of failure to comply with the provisions of
31this reporting provision, any person may compel compliance by means of an action of mandamus
32in superior court. If the court finds that such failure to comply represented a willful violation of
33this section, it may award the plaintiff the reasonable costs of litigation and attorney fees.