Email Warrant Measure Gets Senate Judiciary Nod

A measure that would require law enforcement to get a warrant to read citizens' emails regardless of their age or whether they have been opened passed the Senate Judiciary Committee on a voice vote Thursday

The bipartisan measure, jointly written by Sens. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.; pictured above) and Mike Lee (R-Utah), comes in the form of an amendment to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, or ECPA. ECPA was first passed in 1986 and requires law enforcement to get a subpoena, not a warrant with a judge's signature, to read emails fewer than 180 days old or those that have been opened

The Leahy-Lee amendment would also prohibit companies from disclosing the contents of customers' communications to the government and requires the government to notify a citizen when his or her email has been disclosed via warrant Read more...