Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

11th Circuit Eliminates 4th Amend. In E-mail

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the well-that's-not-very-good dept.

Artefacto writes "Last Thursday, the Eleventh Circuit handed down a Fourth Amendment case, Rehberg v. Paulk, that takes a very narrow view of how the Fourth Amendment applies to e-mail. The Eleventh Circuit held that constitutional protection in stored copies of e-mail held by third parties disappears as soon as any copy of the communication is delivered. Under this new decision, if the government wants get your e-mails, the Fourth Amendment lets the government go to your ISP, wait the seconds it normally takes for the e-mail to be delivered, and then run off copies of your messages."

3 of 490 comments (clear)

  1. Why the court is wron by ral · · Score: 5, Informative
    In TFA Volokh, a distinguished law professor, explains why he thinks the court got it wrong:

    For a real-world example, imagine you write a letter and photocopy it before you put it in the mail. You file the copy in your closet and send the original. During the course of delivery, the original is protected by the Fourth Amendment; when it arrives, you lose Fourth Amendment protection. But the fact that you lose Fourth Amendment protection in the original does not mean that the Government can break into your house and read the copy you made. Conversely, the fact that the recipient of the mail does not have Fourth Amendment rights in the copy does not mean that the government can break into the recipient's house to read the original.

  2. Re:Other Amendments by MattSausage · · Score: 4, Informative

    You are thinking of the Revolutionary war. The Civil war was the war between the states. Some four-score and seven years later.

  3. Case Summary by TheMeuge · · Score: 5, Informative

    The case can be read at:
    http://www.leagle.com/unsecure/page.htm?shortname=infco20100311081

    Here's a brief summary

    1. A guy sent some faxes to a hospital criticizing their management and mocking them.
    2. The prosecutors and police were friends of the hospital management and they investigated this as a "favor"...
    3. they secured three successive indictments against the guy, all of which included felony assault against a man he never met
    4. each time the indictments were dismissed by a higher court
    5. but they arrested and held him anyway
    6. so he sued for violation of his 4th because they got his phone records and emails without a warrant and for malicious prosecution
    7. The 11th circuit dismissed ALL the malicious prosecution claims, granted the police and prosecution total immunity, and ruled that the plaintiff's rights weren't violated when his emails were turned over, because they had already been "delivered" to his ISP.

    There are a lot more things wrong with this decision than just the 4th amendment violations.