Legislation banning federal officials from reading private emails without a warrant sailed unanimously through a key committee vote on Wednesday, following the adoption of "carefully-negotiated" amendments that reflected issues raised by law enforcement.
"Today is a great day for not only the Fourth Amendment advocates who have fought long and hard to move the Email Privacy Act, but also for all Americans, who are one step closer to having private and secure digital communications," Kansas Rep. Kevin Yoder, the lead Republican on the bill, said Wednesday.
Federal officials have claimed the authority to require Internet service providers to hand over private emails that are more than six months old, on the theory that the messages have been "abandoned" by the users. Yoder's plan to end that practice had substantial bipartisan support, but law enforcement pushback prompted another round of negotiations in the Judiciary Committee.
"The bill as introduced is opposed by virtually every law enforcement and prosecutorial association in the country," House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., who helped lead the negotiations to amend the bill, said in a statement Wednesday at a hearing to mark up the legislation. "I am a strong advocate for enhancing Americans' privacy. However, reforms are needed to the Email Privacy Act to protect crime victims and minimize unintended consequences of some of the provisions in the bill."
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I'm sure the Feds will stop reading the emails now.
ReplyDeleteOh my. They really told them!
They just did that to get Hillary off the hook.
ReplyDeleteYet the IRS requires us to keep our records for 7 years before "abandoning" them.
ReplyDeleteThe knife cuts both ways!
They were VERY cool when it was just the serfs getting their privacy completely violated and the 4th Amendment is ignored as a "nuisance".
ReplyDeleteWhen they found out that the NSA was reading THEIR e-mails, tapping THEIR phones, and tracking their whereabouts, all of a sudden, its a horrible intrusion and an affront to the Constitution.
For some reason, I question their motives, but I can be pretty sure it has nothing to do with justice or the Constitution.
It puts a kink into the bribery, back door dealings, insider trading, and theft that helps turn a Senator/Representative into a multimillionaire in a few short months.
Can't have that.
Keep cheering.