Breaking News on EFF Victory: Appeals Court Holds that Email Privacy Protected by Fourth Amendment

“In a landmark decision issued today in the criminal appeal of
U.S. v. Warshak, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that
the government must have a search warrant before it can secretly
seize and search emails stored by email service providers. Closely
tracking arguments made by EFF in its amicus brief, the court found
that email users have the same reasonable expectation of privacy in
their stored email as they do in their phone calls and postal
mail.

“EFF filed a similar amicus brief with the 6th Circuit in 2006
in a civil suit brought by criminal defendant Warshak against the
government for its warrantless seizure of his emails. There, the
6th Circuit agreed with EFF that email users have a Fourth
Amendment-protected expectation of privacy in the email they store
with their email providers, though that decision was later vacated
on procedural grounds.”

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