I 
114TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. R. 791 
To prohibit the unauthorized remote shut down of a cellular phone. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
FEBRUARY 5, 2015 
Mr. GRIFFITH introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on the Judiciary 
A BILL 
To prohibit the unauthorized remote shut down of a cellular 
phone. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Cell Phone Freedom 
Act of 2015’’. 
SEC. 2. UNAUTHORIZED REMOTE SHUTDOWN OF A MOBILE 
DEVICE. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 13 of title 18, United 
States Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing: 
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‘‘§ 250. Unauthorized remote shutdown of a mobile 
device 
‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—Whoever, being an officer or em-
ployee of the United States, any State, Territory, Com-
monwealth, Possession, or District, or of any department 
or agency thereof, knowingly causes a mobile device phone 
to be shut down without the consent of the owner or ac-
count holder of that mobile device phone or without the 
order of a court authorizing such shut down shall be im-
prisoned not more than 5 years or fined under this title, 
or both, and shall be removed from such office or employ-
ment. 
‘‘(b) DEFINITIONS.—In this section— 
‘‘(1) the term ‘account holder’, with respect to 
a mobile device— 
‘‘(A) means the person who holds the ac-
count through which commercial mobile service 
or commercial mobile data service is provided 
on the device; and 
‘‘(B) includes a person authorized by the 
person described in subparagraph (A) to take 
actions with respect to the device; 
‘‘(2) the term ‘commercial mobile data service’ 
means any mobile service (as defined in Section 3 of 
the Communications Act of 1934) that is— 
‘‘(A) a data service; 
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‘‘(B) provided for profit; and 
‘‘(C) available to the public or such classes 
of eligible users as to be effectively available to 
a substantial portion of the public, as specified 
by regulation by the Commission; 
‘‘(3) the term ‘commercial mobile service’ has 
the meaning given the term in section 332 of Com-
munications Act of 1934; 
‘‘(4) the term ‘mobile device’ means a personal 
electronic device on which commercial mobile service 
or commercial mobile data service is provided; and 
‘‘(5) the term ‘shut down’ means to make use 
of a hardware or software function to remotely— 
‘‘(A) delete or render inaccessible from the 
device all information relating to the account 
holder that has been placed on the device; 
‘‘(B) render the device inoperable on the 
network of any provider of commercial mobile 
service or commercial mobile data service glob-
ally, even if the device is turned off or has the 
data storage medium removed; 
‘‘(C) prevent the device from being reac-
tivated or reprogrammed without a passcode or 
similar authorization after the device has 
been— 
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‘‘(i) rendered inoperable as described 
in subparagraph (B); or 
‘‘(ii) subject to an unauthorized fac-
tory reset; and 
‘‘(D) reverse any action described in sub-
paragraph (A), (B), or (C) if the device is re-
covered by the account holder.’’. 
(b) CLERICAL AMENDMENT.—The table of sections 
for such chapter is amended by adding at the end the fol-
lowing: 
‘‘250. Unauthorized remote shutdown of a mobile device.’’. 
Æ 
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