Title: Digital Authenticity for Court Orders Act of 2021
Policy area: Law

Summary:
Digital Authenticity for Court Orders Act of 2021
This bill generally requires certain court orders, particularly those relating to wiretaps, electronic surveillance, and search and seizures, to have authentic digital signatures.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 2547 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

<DOC>






117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 2547

  To improve the procedures for the authentication and the secure and 
   tamper-evident delivery and transmission of certain court orders.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             July 29, 2021

Mr. Wyden (for himself, Mr. Tillis, and Mr. Whitehouse) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                             the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To improve the procedures for the authentication and the secure and 
   tamper-evident delivery and transmission of certain court orders.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Digital Authenticity for Court 
Orders Act of 2021''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) In recent years, criminals have created counterfeit 
        court orders which they have used to trick telecommunications 
        and technology companies into performing illegal wiretaps and 
        removing online content.
            (2) Counterfeit court orders threaten public trust in the 
        courts, and undermine the privacy of the people of the United 
        States and their rights under the First Amendment to the 
        Constitution of the United States.
            (3) Secure digital signature technology has existed for 
        decades that solves this problem. Digital signatures enable 
        recipients of a digital document to verify that it was issued 
        by an authorized entity and that it has not been tampered with 
        or modified since it was digitally signed.
            (4) Since 1994, the National Institute of Standards and 
        Technology has published Federal Information Processing 
        Standard 186-4, which is the official standard for digital 
        signatures for the Federal Government.
            (5) Since 1998, the Government Paperwork Elimination Act 
        (title XVII of division C of Public Law 105-277; 112 Stat. 
        2681-749) and the amendments made by that Act have required 
        Federal executive branch agencies use digital signatures to 
        conduct official business with the public.
            (6) Section 2209 of the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (6 
        U.S.C. 659), as amended by section 1716 of the William M. (Mac) 
        Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 
        2021, requires that subpoenas issued by the Cybersecurity and 
        Infrastructure Security Agency be ``authenticated with a 
        cryptographic digital signature'' and that subpoenas lacking 
        such a digital signature ``shall not be considered to be valid 
        by the recipient of such subpoena''.
            (7) The legislative branch has also embraced digital 
        signatures. Every bill posted to congress.gov is digitally 
        signed by the Government Publishing Office.
            (8) Federal, State, and Tribal courts have not kept pace 
        with the adoption of digital signature technology by other 
        branches of government.
            (9) Illegal wiretaps by their nature involve the 
        interception of private communications that flow over means or 
        instrumentalities of interstate or foreign commerce.
            (10) Content and data delivered over the internet is a 
        thing in interstate or foreign commerce. To the extent that a 
        counterfeit court order would result in that content being 
        removed from the internet, that counterfeit order affects 
        things in interstate and foreign commerce. Congress may 
        therefore take steps to ensure the authenticity of orders 
        purporting to require the removal of online content in 
        interstate or foreign commerce.
            (11) Consumers will not continue to do business with 
        telecommunications and technology companies if those companies 
        facilitate surveillance of their private communications or 
        remove their content in response to fraudulent court orders.
            (12) The absence of digital signatures from court orders 
        places an unreasonable economic burden on telecommunications 
        and technology companies. These companies must either expend 
        significant effort and resources to manually verify the 
        legitimacy of each court order they receive or bear the risk of 
        significant reputational and financial harm.
            (13) The absence of verifiable digital signatures on court 
        orders therefore creates an unreasonable burden on interstate 
        or foreign commerce of the United States, which Congress has 
        the power to remedy.
            (14) The adoption of digital signature technology by 
        Federal courts alone will not address the threat of 
        counterfeiting. Criminals have created and passed off 
        counterfeit State court orders and will continue to do so.
            (15) As such, the legitimacy of and public trust in the 
        courts depends upon every court, Federal, State, and Tribal, 
        adopting digital signature technology.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act--
            (1) the term ``appropriate committees of Congress'' means--
                    (A) the Committee on the Judiciary and the 
                Committee on Appropriations of the Senate; and
                    (B) the Committee on the Judiciary and the 
                Committee on Appropriations of the House of 
                Representatives;
            (2) the term ``authorized court officer or employee'' means 
        an officer or employee of a Federal, State, or Tribal court 
        that is authorized by the Federal, State, or Tribal court to 
        digitally sign covered orders;
            (3) the term ``contains an authentic digital signature'', 
        with respect to a covered order, means that the covered order 
        contains a digital signature--
                    (A) by an authorized court officer or employee of 
                the Federal, State, or Tribal court issuing the covered 
                order;
                    (B) that--
                            (i) complies with the standards certified 
                        and promulgated by the Director of the 
                        Administrative Office of the United States 
                        Courts under section 4(a)(1)(A)(ii); or
                            (ii) if the Director of the Administrative 
                        Office of the United States Courts promulgates 
                        updated standards under section 4(a)(1)(B)(ii), 
                        on and after the date that is 1 year after the 
                        date on which the Director of the 
                        Administrative Office of the United States 
                        Courts promulgates a set of updated standards, 
                        complies with such set of updated standards; 
                        and
                    (C) that confirms that the covered order is 
                authentic;
            (4) the term ``covered order'' means an order--
                    (A) directed to a person other than a party to the 
                proceedings in which the order is entered; and
                    (B) that is--
                            (i) an order authorizing or approving the 
                        interception of a wire communication, oral 
                        communication, or electronic communication 
                        under chapter 119 of title 18, United States 
                        Code, or under an equivalent State law;
                            (ii) an order authorizing or approving the 
                        installation and use of a pen register or a 
                        trap and trace device under chapter 206 of 
                        title 18, United States Code, or under an 
                        equivalent State law;
                            (iii) an order for the installation of a 
                        mobile tracking device under section 3117 of 
                        title 18, United States Code;
                            (iv) an order for disclosure under chapter 
                        121 of title 18, United States Code;
                            (v) a search or seizure warrant issued 
                        using the procedures described in the Federal 
                        Rules of Criminal Procedure or in the case of a 
                        State or Tribal court, issued using State or 
                        Tribal warrant procedures;
                            (vi) in the case of a court-martial or 
                        other proceeding under chapter 47 of title 10, 
                        United States Code (Uniform Code of Military 
                        Justice), a warrant or order issued under 
                        section 846 of that title;
                            (vii) an order under section 1651 of title 
                        28, United States Code;
                            (viii) an order for third party assistance 
                        under section 2518(4) or section 3124 of title 
                        18, United States Code;
                            (ix) an order to enforce the assistance 
                        capability and capacity requirements under 
                        section 2522 of title 18, United States Code;
                            (x) an order under section 2705(b) of title 
                        18, United States Code, prohibiting notifying 
                        other persons;
                            (xi) an order authorizing electronic 
                        surveillance issued under section 105 of the 
                        Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 
                        (50 U.S.C. 1805);
                            (xii) an order authorizing a physical 
                        search issued under section 304 of the Foreign 
                        Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 
                        U.S.C. 1824);
                            (xiii) an order requiring the production of 
                        tangible things issued under section 501 of the 
                        Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 
                        (50 U.S.C. 1861);
                            (xiv) an order authorizing an acquisition 
                        or targeting that is issued under title VII of 
                        the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 
                        1978 (50 U.S.C. 1881 et seq.);
                            (xv) an order issued under section 512(j) 
                        of title 17, United States Code;
                            (xvi) an order requiring the removal or 
                        blocking of content published on the internet;
                            (xvii) an order that permanently or 
                        temporarily seizes a domain name, including by 
                        requiring the change of the registrar of record 
                        for the domain name or preventing the domain 
                        name from resolving to a particular internet 
                        protocol address; or
                            (xviii) any other type of order for which 
                        the Judicial Conference of the United States 
                        determines that the use of digital signatures 
                        would result in increased trust in the courts 
                        and reduce the risk and impact of fraudulent 
                        efforts to impersonate court orders;
            (5) the term ``digital signature'' has the meaning given 
        the term in section 850.103 of title 5, Code of Federal 
        Regulations, or any successor thereto;
            (6) the term ``digital signature technology'' means 
        cryptographic technology that allows a recipient of a covered 
        court order to determine that the covered order--
                    (A) was issued by a Federal, State, or Tribal 
                court; and
                    (B) has not been tampered with or modified since it 
                was issued by the court;
            (7) the term ``Indian Tribe'' has the meaning given such 
        term in section 102 of the Federally Recognized Indian Tribe 
        List Act of 1994 (25 U.S.C. 5130);
            (8) the term ``provider'' means an electronic communication 
        service provider, as defined in section 701(b) of the Foreign 
        Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1881(b));
            (9) the term ``State'' means each of the several States of 
        the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth 
        of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the 
        Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the United States Virgin 
        Islands; and
            (10) the term ``Tribal'' means of or pertaining to an 
        Indian Tribe.

SEC. 4. ENSURING AUTHENTICITY AND INTEGRITY OF COURT ORDERS AFFECTING 
              INTERSTATE COMMERCE.

    (a) Standardized Technology for Digital Signatures.--
            (1) Initial standards.--
                    (A) In general.--Not later than 2 years after the 
                date of enactment of this Act, and in accordance with 
                paragraph (2)--
                            (i) the Director of the National Institute 
                        of Standards and Technology shall develop 
                        proposed standards for the use of digital 
                        signature technology for covered orders, which 
                        shall--
                                    (I) be based on open standards; and
                                    (II) facilitate audits to enable 
                                courts to identify whether 
                                cryptographic keys, or an equally 
                                secure successor technology, used to 
                                digitally authenticate covered orders 
                                have been lost, stolen, or misused; and
                            (ii) on the basis of the proposed standards 
                        developed under clause (i), the Director of the 
                        Administrative Office of the United States 
                        Courts shall certify and promulgate standards 
                        for the use of digital signature technology for 
                        covered orders.
                    (B) Updating.--In accordance with paragraph (2)--
                            (i) not later than 5 years after developing 
                        proposed standards for the use of digital 
                        signature technology for covered orders under 
                        subparagraph (A)(i), and every 5 years 
                        thereafter, the Director of the National 
                        Institute of Standards and Technology shall 
                        update such standards; and
                            (ii) not later than 6 months after 
                        receiving standards updated under clause (i), 
                        and on the basis of such standards, the 
                        Director of the Administrative Office of the 
                        United States Courts shall certify and 
                        promulgate updated standards for the use of 
                        digital signature technology for covered 
                        orders.
            (2) Consultation.--In developing or updating proposed 
        standards and certifying and promulgating standards under 
        paragraph (1), the Director of the National Institute of 
        Standards and Technology and the Director of the Administrative 
        Office of the United States Courts shall each consult with--
                    (A) the Attorney General;
                    (B) the Director of the Cybersecurity and 
                Infrastructure Security Agency;
                    (C) the Administrator of General Services;
                    (D) the Director of the Government Publishing 
                Office;
                    (E) the National Center for State Courts;
                    (F) the National American Indian Court Judges 
                Association;
                    (G) independent experts in cybersecurity;
                    (H) providers;
                    (I) private entities offering electronic case 
                management software; and
                    (J) the Archivist of the United States.
            (3) Implementation assistance.--
                    (A) Digital signature service.--
                            (i) In general.--Notwithstanding any 
                        limitations on the authority of the General 
                        Services Administration to provide services to 
                        State or Tribal entities, the Administrator of 
                        General Services shall offer a managed digital 
                        signature service to each Federal, State, or 
                        Tribal court that will allow the court to 
                        digitally sign covered orders without the court 
                        having to hold and secure the long-term 
                        cryptographic keys used to digitally 
                        authenticate the covered orders, or an equally 
                        secure successor technology.
                            (ii) Consultation.--The digital signature 
                        service offered under clause (i) shall be 
                        developed and implemented in consultation with 
                        the Administrative Office of United States 
                        Courts, the National Center for State Courts, 
                        the National American Indian Court Judges 
                        Association, the Government Publishing Office, 
                        and the Director of the Cybersecurity and 
                        Infrastructure Security Agency.
                            (iii) Requirements.--The digital signature 
                        service offered under clause (i) shall be 
                        designed to--
                                    (I) permit an authorized court 
                                officer or employee of a Federal, 
                                State, or Tribal court to digitally 
                                sign covered orders from a court office 
                                and while teleworking; and
                                    (II) be continuously available for 
                                use.
                    (B) Use.--If a Federal, State, or Tribal court 
                elects to use the managed digital signature service 
                offered under subparagraph (A), the General Services 
                Administration shall provide an online service, 
                available both through a publicly-documented and 
                publicly-available application programming interface 
                and through secure and public websites, that enable 
                authorized court officers and employees to digitally 
                sign a covered order and recipients of a covered order 
                and other third parties to verify that the covered 
                order has a valid digital signature at no cost to the 
                recipient or third party.
                    (C) No cost to courts.--The Administrator of 
                General Services shall provide the managed digital 
                signature service to Federal, State, and Tribal courts 
                under this paragraph at no cost to the court.
                    (D) Reimbursement.--The Attorney General shall 
                reimburse the Administrator of General Services for the 
                costs of building, operating, and maintaining the 
                managed digital signature service for Federal, State, 
                and Tribal courts.
    (b) Digital Signature Requirements for Federal Court Orders.--
            (1) In general.--
                    (A) Piloting the use of digital signatures.--
                Beginning not later than 2 years after the date on 
                which the standards are certified and promulgated by 
                the Director of the Administrative Office of the United 
                States Courts under subsection (a)(1)(A)(ii), not less 
                than 1 district court of the United States in each 
                Federal judicial circuit shall use digital signature 
                technology that complies with the standards to 
                authenticate all covered orders issued by that court.
                    (B) Required use of digital signature technology.--
                            (i) In general.--Beginning not later than 4 
                        years after the date on which the standards are 
                        certified and promulgated by the Director of 
                        the Administrative Office of the United States 
                        Courts under subsection (a)(1)(A)(ii), each 
                        Federal court shall use digital signature 
                        technology that complies with the standards to 
                        authenticate all covered orders issued by the 
                        court.
                            (ii) Updates.--Not later than 1 year after 
                        the date on which updated standards are 
                        certified and promulgated by the Director of 
                        the Administrative Office of the United States 
                        Courts under subsection (a)(1)(B)(ii), each 
                        Federal court system shall update the digital 
                        signature technology used by the court to 
                        comply with the updated standards.
                    (C) Plan for loss or theft.--Each Federal court 
                using digital signature technology shall develop, and 
                update not less frequently than every 2 years, a 
                written plan to respond to the loss or theft of the 
                encryption keys, access credentials, or any successor 
                technology used to digitally sign covered orders.
            (2) Mandatory use of digital signatures.--Except as 
        provided in subsections (d) and (i), on and after the date that 
        is 6 years after the date on which standards are certified and 
        promulgated by the Director of the Administrative Office of the 
        United States Courts under subsection (a)(1)(A)(ii), a Federal 
        court may not issue a covered order unless the covered order 
        contains an authentic digital signature.
    (c) Digital Signature Requirements for State and Tribal Court 
Orders.--
            (1) Full faith and credit requirements.--Section 1738 of 
        title 28, United States Code, is amended--
                    (A) by inserting ``(a)'' before ``The Acts'';
                    (B) by inserting ``(b)'' before ``The records'';
                    (C) by striking ``Such Acts,'' and inserting 
                ``(c)(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), such 
                Acts,''; and
                    (D) in subsection (c), as so designated, by adding 
                at the end the following:
    ``(2)(A) In this paragraph, the terms `contains an authentic 
digital signature', `covered order', `digital signature', `State', and 
`Tribal' have the meanings given such terms in section 3 of the Digital 
Authenticity for Court Orders Act of 2021.
    ``(B) A document purporting to be a covered order issued by a State 
or Tribal court shall be entitled to full faith and credit only if--
            ``(i)(I) the document contains an authentic digital 
        signature;
            ``(II) the document was served with a certificate of 
        authenticity in accordance with section 4(d)(1) of the Digital 
        Authenticity for Court Orders Act of 2021; or
            ``(III) the document was issued pursuant to a waiver under 
        section 4(d)(2) of the Digital Authenticity for Court Orders 
        Act of 2021; and
            ``(ii) the State or Tribal court includes with the document 
        a statement certifying that the court has (and has updated on 
        or after the date that is 2 years before the date on which the 
        covered order is issued) a written plan to respond to the loss 
        or theft of the encryption keys, access credentials, or any 
        successor technology used to digitally sign covered orders.''.
            (2) Wiretapping.--Section 2516(2) of title 18, United 
        States Code, is amended by striking ``The principal prosecuting 
        attorney of any State'' and inserting ``If a State requires 
        that an order described in this subsection issued by the State 
        court contains an authentic digital signature (as defined in 
        section 3 of the Digital Authenticity for Court Orders Act of 
        2021), the principal prosecuting attorney of that State''.
            (3) Stored communications requirements.--Chapter 121 of 
        title 18, United States Code, is amended--
                    (A) in section 2703, by inserting ``and containing 
                an authentic digital signature (as defined in section 3 
                of the Digital Authenticity for Court Orders Act of 
                2021)'' after ``warrant procedures'' each place it 
                appears; and
                    (B) in section 2711(3)(B), by inserting ``, if the 
                court requires that each covered order issued by the 
                court contains an authentic digital signature (as such 
                terms are defined in section 3 of the Digital 
                Authenticity for Court Orders Act of 2021)'' after 
                ``search warrants''.
            (4) Pen registers and trap and trace devices.--Section 
        3122(a)(2) of title 18, United States Code, is amended by 
        inserting ``and if the State requires that such an order issued 
        by the State court contains an authentic digital signature (as 
        defined in section 3 of the Digital Authenticity for Court 
        Orders Act of 2021),'' after ``prohibited by State law,''.
            (5) Effective date.--Except as provided in subsection (i), 
        the amendments made by paragraphs (1) through (4) shall take 
        effect on the date that is 6 years after the date on which the 
        Director of the Administrative Office of the United States 
        Courts certifies and promulgates standards for the use of 
        digital signature technology for covered orders under 
        subsection (a)(1)(A)(ii).
    (d) Failure of Digital Signature Technology.--
            (1) Individual courts.--If the digital signature technology 
        of a Federal, State, or Tribal court is not operational, upon 
        request by an officer or employee of the Federal, State, or 
        Tribal court who is authorized to digitally sign covered 
        orders, and if the Attorney General determines that a covered 
        court order is authentic, the Attorney General may serve on the 
        provider by personal service the covered court order and a 
        certification stating that the covered court order is 
        authentic.
            (2) Widespread outage.--
                    (A) In general.--If the digital signature 
                technology of not less than 5 Federal, State, or Tribal 
                courts is not operational, the Chief Justice of the 
                United States may issue a waiver for a period of not 
                more than 30 days that waives the application of each 
                of the following:
                            (i) The requirements under subsection 
                        (b)(2) with respect to Federal courts.
                            (ii) The limits on full faith and credit 
                        for covered orders issued by State and Tribal 
                        courts under paragraph (2) of section 1738(c) 
                        of title 28, United States Code, as added by 
                        subsection (c) of this section.
                    (B) Renewals.-- A waiver described in subparagraph 
                (A) may be renewed for additional periods of not more 
                than 30 days.
                    (C) Notice.--The Chief Justice of the United States 
                shall submit to the appropriate committees of Congress 
                and make publicly available on the website of the 
                Supreme Court of the United States notice of each 
                waiver and renewal of a waiver under this paragraph.
            (3) Subsequent service of digitally signed order by federal 
        courts.--If a covered order of a Federal, State, or Tribal 
        court is served on a provider under paragraph (1) or pursuant 
        to a waiver under paragraph (2), after the digital signature 
        technology of the Federal, State, or Tribal court is 
        operational, the party who obtained the initial order shall 
        obtain and serve on the provider an identical covered order 
        that meets the requirements under subsection (b)(2) or 
        paragraph (2) of section 1738(c) of title 28, United States 
        Code, as applicable.
            (4) Information regarding failure of digital signature 
        technology.--
                    (A) Public list of nonoperational systems.--The 
                Attorney General shall make publicly available on the 
                website of the Department of Justice a list of each 
                Federal, State, or Tribal court for which the digital 
                signature technology is not operational, which shall 
                include--
                            (i) the period during which the Attorney 
                        General approved 1 or more covered court orders 
                        of the Federal, State, or Tribal court under 
                        paragraph (1); and
                            (ii) information indicating the measures a 
                        provider can take to verify that a covered 
                        court order and certification served under 
                        paragraph (1) are authentic.
                    (B) Notice to congress.--If the digital signature 
                technology of a Federal, State, or Tribal court is not 
                operational for a period of not less than 10 days, the 
                Attorney General shall notify the appropriate 
                committees of Congress.
    (e) Limit on Immunity Provisions.--
            (1) In general.--Except as provided in subsection (i), on 
        and after the date that is 6 years after the date on which the 
        standards are certified and promulgated by the Director of the 
        Administrative Office of the United States Courts under 
        subsection (a)(1)(A)(ii), the provisions of law described in 
        paragraph (2) of this subsection shall only apply with respect 
        to the provision of documents, data, or other information by a 
        provider that removes content or makes available documents, 
        data, or other information in response to a document purporting 
        to be a covered order issued by a Federal, State, or Tribal 
        court if--
                    (A) the document contains an authentic digital 
                signature;
                    (B)(i) the document was served with a certificate 
                of authenticity in accordance with subsection (d)(1); 
                and
                    (ii) the provider--
                            (I) verified that the court that issued the 
                        order is listed on the website of the 
                        Department of Justice as having nonoperational 
                        digital signature technology; and
                            (II) takes the measures listed by the 
                        Attorney General to verify that a covered court 
                        order and certification served under subsection 
                        (d)(1) are authentic; or
                    (C) the document was issued pursuant to a waiver 
                under subsection (d)(2).
            (2) Provisions of law.--The provisions of law described in 
        this paragraph are the following:
                    (A) Section 512 of title 17, United States Code.
                    (B) Section 2520(d)(1) of title 18, United States 
                Code.
                    (C) Section 2707(e) of title 18, United States 
                Code.
                    (D) Section 105(i) of the Foreign Intelligence 
                Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1805(i)).
                    (E) Section 402(f) of the Foreign Intelligence 
                Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1842(f)).
                    (F) Section 702(i)(3) of the Foreign Intelligence 
                Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1881a(i)(3)).
                    (G) Section 703(e) of the Foreign Intelligence 
                Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1881b(e)).
                    (H) Title VIII of the Foreign Intelligence 
                Surveillance Act of 1978 (50 U.S.C. 1885 et seq.).
    (f) Grants.--The Administrative Office of United States Courts may 
make grants to State and Tribal courts for the cost of implementing 
digital signature technology, including to develop and implement 
training and educational resources, in accordance with this Act.
    (g) Immunity.--
            (1) In general.--Except as provided in subsection (i), on 
        and after the date that is 6 years after the date on which the 
        Director of the Administrative Office of the United States 
        Courts certifies and promulgates standards for the use of 
        digital signature technology for covered orders under 
        subsection (a)(1)(A)(ii), a person may not be held liable in 
        any Federal, State, or Tribal administrative, civil, or 
        criminal proceeding, including for contempt of court, for 
        failing to comply with a covered order issued by a Federal, 
        State, or Tribal court, respectively, if the covered order does 
        not meet one of the following requirements:
                    (A) The covered order contains an authentic digital 
                signature.
                    (B) The covered order was served with a certificate 
                of authenticity in accordance with subsection (d)(1).
                    (C) The covered order was issued pursuant to a 
                waiver under subsection (d)(2).
            (2) Costs.--In any action brought to enforce compliance 
        with a covered order that, except as provided in subsection 
        (i), was issued on or after the date that is 6 years after the 
        date on which the Director of the Administrative Office of the 
        United States Courts certifies and promulgates standards for 
        the use of digital signature technology for covered orders 
        under subsection (a)(1)(A)(ii), if the court finds that the 
        covered order does not meet the requirements described in 
        subparagraph (A), (B), or (C) of paragraph (1) of this 
        subsection, the court shall award to the person against whom 
        the action was brought costs of litigation (including 
        reasonable attorney fees).
    (h) Authorization of Appropriations.--There are authorized to be 
appropriated such sums as are necessary to carry out this Act, 
including for the Administrative Office of United States Courts to make 
grants under subsection (f) and to upgrade the Case Management/
Electronic Case Files System of the Federal Courts.
    (i) Delay of Effective Date.--The Judicial Conference of the United 
States may delay the effective dates under subsection (b)(2), 
subsection (c)(3), subsection (e)(1) and subsection (g) to be the date 
that is 8 years after the date on which the Director of the 
Administrative Office of the United States Courts certifies and 
promulgates standards for the use of digital signature technology for 
covered orders under subsection (a)(1)(A)(ii).

SEC. 5. PREEMPTION.

    This Act and the amendments made by this Act shall preempt any 
State or Tribal law to the extent that such State law is inconsistent 
with a provision of this Act or an amendment made by this Act.

SEC. 6. SEVERABILITY.

    If any provision of this Act, an amendment made by this Act, or the 
application of such a provision or amendment to any person or 
circumstance, is held to be unconstitutional, the remaining provisions 
of and amendments made by this Act, and the application of the 
provision or amendment held to be unconstitutional to any other person 
or circumstance, shall not be affected thereby.
                                 <all>