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TechnologyDaily Mobile
A Busy State Of Affairs
by Michael Martinez
State legislatures have closed the books on their spring sessions this year by clearing batches of technology-related measures that are ready to be signed into law.
The tech talk in state capitals this year largely was dominated by proposals to curtail identity theft and monitor sexual predators lurking on the Internet. The fiery debate on Capitol Hill over illegal immigration also spread to the state level.
But legislative sessions in some states were defined by the inability of lawmakers to advance high-profile bills. After receiving nationwide attention for a measure to reject a federal mandate for standardized driver's licenses, lawmakers in New Hampshire failed to clear the bill. Democratic Gov. Janet Napolitano, who has set a record in her state for the most bills ever rejected by a governor, also vetoed a highly scrutinized immigration proposal in Arizona.
On Patrol Against ID Theft, Cyber Crime
A string of alarming data breaches prompted state lawmakers throughout the country this year to consider bills to establish stronger safeguards against identity theft and other online crimes.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, Arizona, Colorado, Kansas, Idaho, Indiana, Maine, Nebraska, Utah and Wisconsin all enacted bills requiring notification of consumers about data breaches. In March, furthermore, New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer announced a $1.1 million settlement in a lawsuit over what he called one of the largest deliberate data breaches in American history.
Lawmakers also scrambled to pass legislation on ID theft in the wake of the disclosure by the Veterans Affairs Department that the theft of a laptop computer put the personal information of millions of military employees at risk.
New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch, Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty passed laws to let consumers freeze their credit and to boost penalties against companies that violate credit-reporting laws. According to TrustedID, 16 states now have credit-freeze laws, and a similar proposal is pending in New York.
Last month, meanwhile, Colorado Gov. Bill Owens signed into law a package of bills to make ID theft a felony subject to minimum prison sentences of two years and a mandatory three years of parole. In addition, the law establishes a unit on ID theft and financial fraud within the state's Public Safety Department.
Connecticut, Oklahoma, Tennessee and Utah also created statutes to curtail "phishing" scams, which involve frauds obtaining the personal information of consumers through the use of phony e-mails and Web sites. And state prosecutors were quick to take action against companies that sell the cellular telephone records of consumers over the Internet without their permission, and firms.
Internet Predators In The Crosshairs
State lawmakers have remained focused on protecting children from sexual predators.
Last week, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford made his state the latest to approve its version of "Jessica's Law," a 2005 Florida statute named after Jessica Lunsford, who was allegedly abducted from her home and killed by a paroled sex offender in 2005. The law requires that registered sex offenders be equipped with global positioning devices for life.
Kansas, Maine, Missouri and Wisconsin all codified similar laws in the past month. Plus a bill signed into law in Colorado last week would require Internet service providers to keep records on the online activities of their customers.
But some state-level mechanisms to monitor sexual predators have come under fire.
Maine's sex-offender registry became the subject of a lawsuit after two men listed on it were murdered by a man who allegedly used the database to track them. The plaintiff requested a temporary restraining order to block the state from requiring him to provide his personal information for the registry, which is publicly accessible.
State officials also have become concerned about social-networking sites, online message boards and chat rooms where predators often interact with their victims. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and Massachusetts Attorney General Tom Reilly have urged the popular site MySpace to make itself safer for children.
The online criminal database model also has been put to use to watch drug dealers. A new law in Illinois requires residents convicted of using methamphetamine to register their names into a publicly accessible database.
Immigration, Security Concerns Take Center Stage
The heated debate over immigration has not been exclusive to lawmakers at the federal level. According to NCSL, at least 44 immigration-related proposals have been enacted by governors.
Last week, Napolitano vetoed a comprehensive immigration proposal that called for the construction of a radar system along the state's southern border to monitor points of entry. In a letter to the legislature, Napolitano said the immigration measure offered no constructive new ideas and was "filled with unworkable or unconstitutional provisions" that she had previously objected to or vetoed.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry also has announced a $5 million plan to deploy a network of night-vision cameras along his state's southern border. The network will provide publicly accessible streaming video and give citizens a chance to report illegal border crossings and potential crime.
On another front, a proposal in New Hampshire to reject the so-called REAL ID act, a federal law mandating nationwide ID standards, died in the state Senate in May. The bill would have made New Hampshire the first state to reject the statute. States must comply with the statute by 2008.
Lawmakers in New Hampshire were more successful prohibiting the use of radio-frequency identification technology to identify automobiles on highways. A bill on that topic was signed into law last month. At least 14 other states, including Alabama, California and Florida, have considered RFID-related statutes this year.
Step Away From The Joystick
State lawmakers have continued to press for laws to curb the sale of violent and sexually explicit videogames to children, despite lingering questions about the constitutionality of such statutes.
The videogame industry already has sued over a law passed earlier this month in Minnesota that would make children younger than 17 subject to $25 fines if they attempt to purchase restricted games. And the Entertainment Software Association is threatening to go to court over a measure passed last week by the Louisiana Senate. The legislation is now before the governor.
A video game measure in Oklahoma was signed into law on Friday by Gov. Brad Henry.
In the past year, videogame laws in California, Illinois and Michigan have been overturned on constitutional grounds. The Minnesota law is unique in that it also targets the buyers of the games, not just the vendors. The Louisiana Senate mulled a bill that only would have targeted sexually explicit games before it instead opted for language to also address violent games.
Adam Thierer, a senior fellow at the Progress and Freedom Foundation, said it will take a lot more than simply "tweaking" the language of such bills to make them withstand constitutional scrutiny.
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