Encryption Control 'Unconstitutional'

Tags: 1990s Clinton Export Controls

Authors: The Associated Press

Published: September 1997

URL: https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/tech/analysis/encryption/court.htm

Abstract: In August of 1997, the Associated Press wrote regarding the decision of U.S. District Judge Marilyn Hall Patel to hold the Clinton Administration’s regulations prohibiting the electronic export of computer encryption without a Commerce Department license as a violation of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. Judge Patel’s order prohibited enforcement of the regulation against a mathematics professor from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Daniel Bernstein, and his encryption program, Snuffle. Judge Patel identified two key issues with the regulation: (1) its failure to set timetables or standards for the government’s licensing decision and (2) its failure to provide for judicial review. The decision was championed by pro-encryption organizations, such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who expressed satisfaction with the “very large impact on U.S. leadership in the software industry and electronic commerce industry” and “huge impact on privacy rights for the next 100 years” the ruling would have.