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CA6: E-mail has Fourth Amendment protection

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

In the Smilin' Bob Enzyte case from the Sixth Circuit, United States v. Washak, 2010 U.S. App. LEXIS 25415, 2010 FED App. 0377P(6th Cir. December 14, 2010), the Court held that emails have Fourth Amendment protection. First, a summary of the holding: (1) Warshak enjoyed a reasonable expectation of privacy in his emails vis-a-vis NuVox, his Internet Service Provider. See Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347 (1967). Thus, government agents violated his Fourth Amendment rights by compelling NuVox to turn over the emails without first obtaining a warrant based on probable cause. However, because the agents relied in good faith on provisions of the Stored Communications Act, the exclusionary rule does not apply in this instance. See Illinois v. Krull, 480 U...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on December 15, 2010 (boomark / email).