California has become the first state in the country to introduce legislation to safeguard a juror's social media username and password. California bill (A.B. 2070) prohibits a court from requiring or requesting a juror or prospective juror to disclose a username or password for the purpose of accessing personal social media or requiring the juror or prospective juror to access personal social media in the presence of the judge, counsel for either party, or any other officer of the court.
AB 2070 introduced earlier this year by State Representative Nora Campos is most likely in response to recent efforts by attorneys to gain greater access to the social media accounts of jurors. As some may recall, the attorneys representing Jodi Arias filed a motion, which was denied, to obtain the Twitter handles of prospective jurors. Also, two years ago, a California Appellate Court in Juror #1 v. Superior Court directed a juror to make his Facebook account available to the court.
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