the name of a requested file or article.”47 Though none of
these authorities offer detailed reasoning on why they draw
the “content” line where they do, what they have in common
is that they assess whether a URL involves “contents” based
on how much information would be revealed by disclosure of
the URL.
Third, the Surveillance Court’s example of post-cutthrough digits in the telephone context—i.e. numbers dialed
from a telephone after a call is already setup or “cutthrough”—hints at a different reason why queried URLs
might be considered content. A number of courts apart from
the Surveillance Court—most prominently the D.C. Circuit—
have found such digits to comprise communications content
beyond the permissible scope of a pen register.48 URL queries
47
See H. Rep. No. 107-36, at 53.
48
See U.S. Telecom Ass’n v. F.C.C., 227 F.3d 450, 462 (D.C.
Cir. 2000) (“Post-cut-through dialed digits can . . . represent
call content. For example, subjects calling automated banking
services enter account numbers. When calling voicemail
systems, they enter passwords. When calling pagers, they dial
digits that convey actual messages. And when calling
pharmacies to renew prescriptions, they enter prescription
numbers.”); In re Applications of the U.S., 515 F. Supp. 2d
325, 339 (E.D.N.Y. 2007) (“[T]he “Government’s request for
access to all post-cut-through dialed digits is not clearly
authorized by the Pen/Trap Statute, and . . . granting such a
request would violate the Fourth Amendment . . . .”); In re
Application of the U.S., 441 F. Supp. 2d at 827 (“Post-cutthrough dialed digits . . . are not available to law enforcement
under the Pen/Trap Statute.”).
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