Mark Udall 'Extremely Concerned' About Warrantless Email Searches

[marmar]

NEW YORK -- Sen. Mark Udall (D-Colo.) said Thursday he was "extremely concerned" over revelations that the FBI continues to believe it can conduct warrantless email searches despite a federal appeals court's ruling that they are unconstitutional.

Using a public records request, the American Civil Liberties Union received a set of FBI documents Wednesday. An internal June 2012 department guide included among the documents shows that the FBI believes it can obtain the contents of emails without a warrant if the email was sent or received through a third-party service.

In at least one case before that guide was written, however, a federal court disagreed: In a 2010 decision, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals found that emailers using cloud services have a reasonable expectation of privacy and are protected by the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution's warrant requirement.

"I am extremely concerned that the Justice Department and FBI are justifying warrantless searches of Americans' electronic communications based on a loophole in an outdated law that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled was unconstitutional," Udall said in a statement. ...................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/09/warrantless-searches-email-fbi-email_n_3248575.html?ncid=txtlnkushpmg00000037

[a2liberal]

1. We are heading fast towards a police state

and both parties are complicit.

[upi402]

2. Man, the ACLU is on it!

What would this country be without the ACLU lifting the rocks the creepy crawlies hide under?

[JDPriestly]

3. I was thinking about this today.

Hypothetically, and I want to emphasize that his is not a real situation as far as I know, what if someone wanted a copy of an e-mail to use in a lawsuit or a criminal case but could not prove that the e-mail existed or did not know from what account it had been e-mailed and sent or to, could the person wanting the copy subpoena it from that vast store of e-mails that the FBI or other government agency is keeping? If not, why not? If it is needed in order to insure justice? Seems to me that is a compelling reason for whatever agency allegedly stores and saves these e-mails to produce them in response to a subpoena. In California it can be a little difficult to subpoena tax returns in certain circumstances. But in other circumstances a person can be required to produce them. So . . . . . could there be circumstances in which the repository for all those e-mails could be ordered to produce certain ones?