[Infowarrior] - Appeals Court Says Feds Need Warrants to Search E-Mail

[Richard Forno]

Appeals Court Says Feds Need Warrants to Search E-Mail
By Luke O'Brien EmailJune 18, 2007 | 1:22:17

A federal appeals court on Monday issued a landmark decision (.pdf) that
holds that e-mail has similar constitutional privacy protections as
telephone communications, meaning that federal investigators who search and
seize emails without obtaining probable cause warrants will now have to do
so.

"This decision is of inestimable importance in a world where most of us have
webmail accounts," said Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney for the Electronic
Frontier Foundation.

The ruling by the Sixth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Ohio upheld a lower
court ruling that placed a temporary injunction on e-mail searches in a
fraud investigation against Steven Warshak, who runs a supplements company
best known for a male enhancement product called Enzyte. Warshak hawks
Enzyte using "Smiling Bob" ads that have gained some notoriety.

The case boiled down to a Fourth Amendment argument, in which Warshak
contended that the government overstepped its constitutional reach when it
demanded e-mail records from his internet service providers. Under the 1986
federal Stored Communications Act (SCA), the government has regularly
obtained e-mail from third parties without getting warrants and without
letting targets of an investigation know (ergo, no opportunity to contest).

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http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2007/06/appeals_court_s.html