Email Privacy is Still Protected by Fourth Amendment

Great News! Don’t you agree? I think it’s great that your email is still protected by the Fourth Amendment.

Based on todays decision the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the goverment must have a search warrant before it can secretly seize and search emails stored by email service providers.

Eff.org (2010-12-14) – Given the fundamental similarities between email and traditional forms of communication [like postal mail and telephone calls], it would defy common sense to afford emails lesser Fourth Amendment protection…. It follows that email requires strong protection under the Fourth Amendment; otherwise the Fourth Amendment would prove an ineffective guardian of private communication, an essential purpose it has long been recognized to serve…. [T]he police may not storm the post office and intercept a letter, and they are likewise forbidden from using the phone system to make a clandestine recording of a telephone call–unless they get a warrant, that is. It only stands to reason that, if government agents compel an ISP to surrender the contents of a subscriber’s emails, those agents have thereby conducted a Fourth Amendment search, which necessitates compliance with the warrant requirement….

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