June 5, 2023–Due Process Institute joined criminal justice and civil rights advocacy groups to urge members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to oppose S. 1080, the Cooper Davis Act. The bill purports to address the sale of methamphetamine, fentanyl, and “counterfeit substances” by coopting online services to report the alleged or suspected creation, manufacture, or distribution of these substances — or possession with intent to create, manufacture, or distribute them. Rather than meaningfully addressing the public health crisis caused by such substances, this bill would instead incentivize online services to search through user content and effectively deputize them as agents of the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA), undermining the Fourth Amendment and the Stored Communications Act, likely with disproportionate effects on people of color, LGBTQ+ people, and other marginalized communities.
This bill circumvents constitutional and statutory privacy protections and falls short of its intended purpose. The bill requires online services — including social media, email, and internet service providers — to identify “facts or circumstances” indicating an “apparent violation involving” “the creation, manufacturing, distributing, dispensing, or possession with intent to manufacture, distribute, or dispense” fentanyl, methamphetamine, or a counterfeit substance and report them to the DEA. Not only does the bill require reporting for “actual knowledge” of those “facts and circumstances,” but it permits reporting on a mere “reasonable belief” that an “apparent” violation has occurred. Failure to perform the required reporting can result in criminal and civil fines amounting to hundreds of thousands of dollars. The bill goes further in encouraging companies to turn over identifying information including screen names, photos, IP addresses, geolocation information, and even the content of communications to the DEA and potentially other law enforcement agencies.
The bill also requires that the provider retain the information for later access by law enforcement and prohibits notice to the user. Rather than addressing a pressing health crisis, this bill does an end run around the Fourth Amendment by requesting user information from online services in the form of reporting and voluntary disclosures. This puts online services in the position to decide what appears to be a sale of or intent to sell illicit substances and then decide how much to report to the DEA. The bill’s “reasonable belief” standard is not clearly defined and falls far short of the probable cause standard demanded by the Fourth Amendment that law enforcement generally has to meet before obtaining a warrant and engaging in a search. The bill also expressly undermines the already limited warrant or subpoena and notice requirements of the Stored Communications Act.