If the government wants to see your emails stored by an Internet service provider, they first will have to get a warrant. The government used to skip getting a warrant, based on a 1986 law, the Stored Communications Act, granting such power. But a ruling on December 14 by a federal appeals court has nullified the 1986 statute and federal attorneys now will have to seek out a judge and demonstrate probable cause before obtaining a warrant for email searches.

 

“The government may not compel a commercial ISP to turn over the contents of a subscriber’s e-mails without first obtaining a warrant based on probable cause,” wrote the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in the case U.S. v. Warshak.

 

This is the first time that a federal court has extended Fourth Amendment rights to email communications.

 

That case centered on Steven Warshak, founder of an Ohio herbal-supplement company that marketed male-enhancement pills. As part of a fraud investigation, the government obtained thousands of his emails from his ISP without a warrant—which led to the appellate decision after Warshak challenged his conviction.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Warrant Needed to Get Your E-Mail, Appeals Court Says (by David Kravets, Wired)

Breaking News on EFF Victory: Appeals Court Holds that Email Privacy Protected by Fourth Amendment (by Kevin Bankston, Electronic Frontier Foundation)

United States v. Steven Warshak (Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals) (pdf)