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Federal Court Rules Emails Protected Under 4th Amendment

By M. James Jenkins, Esq.

On December 14, 2010, in United States v. Warshak, the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals held that government agents violated the defendant?s Fourth Amendment rights when they seized his stored emails without a warrant, pursuant to an outdated law, the Stored Communications Act of 1986 (SCA). ?An Internet subscriber enjoys a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of emails that are stored with, or sent or received through, a commercial Internet Service Provider,? the court said. Warshak is an interesting appellate opinion stemming from a multi-defendant trial in the Southern District Court of Ohio federal district court. The case involved multiple defendants who had varied interests in the company that sold the widely advertised product Enzyte, an herbal supplement first marketed by Berkeley Premium Nutraceauticals alleging to increase the size of a man's erection...continue to full post

Full post as published by Florida Criminal Law Blog on December 16, 2010 (boomark / email).