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On December 15, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed the grant of summary judgment in favor of our clients, holding the Massachusetts Wiretap Statute (Mass. Gen. L. ch. 272, § 99) unconstitutional when applied to secret recordings of police officers discharging their official duties in public spaces. This decision is the first appellate-level decision recognizing First Amendment protection for this conduct.
The Massachusetts Wiretap Statute: This statute makes it a felony to secretly record oral communications, regardless of the other circumstances of the recording. Our clients two civil-rights activists in Boston and the plaintiffs in this case challenged the Massachusetts Wiretap Statute as unconstitutional under the First Amendment as applied to secret recordings of police officers performing their duties in public. While both plaintiffs have openly recorded law enforcement officials pe