HR 7491 · in committee · major
Effective Assistance of Counsel in the Digital Era Act
- criminal justice
What this bill does
- The bill prohibits the Department of Justice from monitoring electronic communications between incarcerated people and their lawyers.
- Incarcerated people and their legal representatives are affected by this protection of attorney-client privilege.
- The bill takes effect upon enactment with no new funding required.
Generated by claude-haiku-4-5
Community Threads
Started by Cosponsor
- 01
How should courts balance protecting attorney-client confidentiality for incarcerated people against law enforcement concerns about monitoring communications for security purposes?
- 02
What evidence exists that current DOJ monitoring of inmate-lawyer communications has compromised legal defense or violated privilege, and what would change under this bill?
- 03
Which parties—incarcerated individuals, correctional facilities, the DOJ, or defense attorneys—would be most significantly affected by prohibiting electronic communication monitoring?
Cosponsor writes these to seed civic discussion — they aren't user posts. Sign in to reply.

Sponsor · D-PA-4
Madeleine Dean
Citizen cosponsors
0
In Congress
3/ 435
House Reps cosponsoring
Introduced 2026-02-11
Joining the bill
Legislative timeline
2026-02-11 · house · IntroReferral
Referred to the House Committee on the Judiciary.
2026-02-11 · IntroReferral
Introduced in House
2026-02-11 · IntroReferral
Introduced in House

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