RIP: 4th amendment rights for email

[thewayne]

"Eleventh Circuit Decision Largely Eliminates Fourth Amendment Protection in E-Mail

Last Thursday, the Eleventh Circuit handed down a Fourth Amendment case, Rehberg v. Paulk, that takes a very narrow view of how the Fourth Amendment applies to e-mail. The Eleventh Circuit held that constitutional protection in stored copies of e-mail held by third parties disappears as soon as any copy of the communication is delivered. Under this new decision, if the government wants get your e-mails, the Fourth Amendment lets the government go to your ISP, wait the seconds it normally takes for the e-mail to be delivered, and then run off copies of your messages." ...

http://volokh.com/2010/03/15/eleventh-circuit-decision-largely-eliminates-fourth-amendment-protection-in-e-mail/

[sarcasm] I'm sure such a decision would never be abused by our government. [/sarcasm]

Comments

[silveradept]

Not at all. they would only use such a decision and power responsibly. So that they can know with certainty who is an enemy of the state and all.