Electronic Frontier Foundation, Inc. v. Super. Ct.

I.

INTRODUCTION

Between 2018 and 2020, Electric Frontier Foundation, Inc. (EFF) moved to unseal

affidavits filed in support of executed search warrants requested by the San Bernardino

County Sheriff’s Department (the Sheriff) and issued under seal by the San Bernardino

Superior Court between March 2017 and March 2018. The trial court denied EFF’s

motion and ordered the affidavits to remain sealed. EFF appeals, and we affirm.

II.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

EFF is a “non-profit civil liberties organization working to protect and promote

fundamental liberties in the digital world.” According to EFF, cell-site simulators always

collect the digital data of innocent people. “A cell-site simulator works as its name

suggests—it pretends to be a cell tower on the network of the target phone’s service

provider. It takes advantage of the fact that a cell phone—when turned on—constantly

seeks out nearby cell towers, even if the user is not making a call. Furnished with

identifying information concerning the target phone, the cell-site simulator searches for

2 that phone. When the cell-site simulator is close enough, the target phone will connect to

it as though it were…