Mark Udall 'Extremely Concerned' About Warrantless Email Searches [View all]

[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and FBI are justifying warrantless searches of Americans' electronic communications based on a loophole in an outdated law that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled was unconstitutional," Udall said in a statement.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