Sens Expected to Unveil E-mail Privacy Legislation July 27

Apparently, Sens Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Mike Lee (R-UT) are expected to unveil legislation that will force the government to obtain warrants to look at American citizen’s e-mails. Sens Leahy and Lee’s bill, titled the ECPA Modernization Act of 2017, aims to update the Email Communications Privacy Act of 1986. The bill will initially be released without any cosponsors.

Currently, law enforcement can obtain Americans’ e-mail correspondence with a written statement saying that the e-mails are necessary to an investigation, a process that does not require judicial review. The new bill would change this and require law enforcement agencies to get warrants through a court to gain access to citizens’ e-mails. Apparently, the reforms would cover areas beyond email privacy like protections on metadata, and improvements to the current gag rules which allow the government to keep e-mail service providers from notifying users that their e-mails have been obtained. The bill has been extremely popular in the House, passing with an overwhelming, bipartisan majority the last two times it was introduced.