Did you know Montana was a leader on privacy laws? Neither did Montana.

Amendments to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act passed the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier this year, but there’s been no further progress on updating the law that lets federal investigators seize e-mail records without a warrant. Now, a bunch of states are taking matters into their own hands, with each considering (or already settling on) legislative language that makes it harder for state and local law enforcement to read unopened e-mails, as well as e-mails that have sat unopened in an inbox for more than 180 days.

In Montana, an e-mail and location-tracking privacy bill known as HB 603 became law in May after being passed in the state legislature with virtually no opposition. Allie Bohm, a policy analyst at the ACLU, said that not even law enforcement officers objected to the law. Montana’s traditional views on privacy are so strong that many police officers request a warrant even if the law doesn’t require it. When the state Senate House passed the bill by a 92-vote margin in April, many Montanans had no idea they had become pioneers in privacy law.