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 U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts transmitted the rules to Congress,
which will have until Dec. 1 to reject or modify the changes to the
federal rules of criminal procedure. If Congress does not act, the
rules would take effect automatically.
Magistrate judges normally can order searches only within the
jurisdiction of their court, which is typically limited to a few
counties.
The U.S. Justice Department, which has pushed for the rule change
since 2013, has described it as a minor modification needed to
modernize the criminal code for the digital age, and has said it
would not permit searches or seizures that are not already legal.
 Google, owned by Alphabet Inc <GOOGL.O>, and civil liberties groups
such as the American Civil Liberties Union and Access Now contend
the change would vastly expand the Federal Bureau of Investigation's
ability to conduct mass hacks on computer networks.
They say it also could run afoul of the U.S. Constitution's
protections against unreasonable searches and seizures.
While Congress can reject amendments to the rules that govern
federal courts, it rarely exercises that authority and is not
expected to do so during a heated election year. And few lawmakers
have shown interest in the subject.
Democratic Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, condemned the rule change as
having "significant consequences for Americans’ privacy," and vowed
to introduce legislation to reverse it.
"Under the proposed rules, the government would now be able to
obtain a single warrant to access and search thousands or millions
of computers at once; and the vast majority of the affected
computers would belong to the victims, not the perpetrators, of a
cybercrime," Wyden said in a statement.
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The Justice Department's quest to broaden warrant jurisdiction has
not drawn as much attention as other recent confrontations over
government access to digital information. These included the FBI's
standoff with Apple over encryption arising from the agency's effort
to unlock an iPhone used by one of the shooters in December's San
Bernardino massacre.
A Justice Department spokesman said the change was necessary because
criminals increasingly use "anonymizing" technologies to conceal
their identity online, and remote searches are often the only way to
apprehend such suspects.
The change does not authorize any new authorities not already
permitted by law, the spokesman said.
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