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That Was Fast: Leahy Drops Warrantless E-mail Surveillance Bill

Posted by Soulskill on from the sees-which-way-the-wind-is-blowing dept.

Presto Vivace writes "Under the right conditions, online activism can be very effective. U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy has already abandoned his warrantless e-mail surveillance bill we discussed this morning. 'The Vermont Democrat said today on Twitter that he would "not support such an exception" for warrantless access. ... A vote on the proposal in the Senate Judiciary committee, which Leahy chairs, is scheduled for next Thursday. The amendments were due to be glued onto a substitute (PDF) to H.R. 2471, which the House of Representatives already has approved. Leahy's about-face comes in response to a deluge of criticism today, including the ACLU saying that warrants should be required, and the conservative group FreedomWorks launching a petition to Congress -- with over 2,300 messages sent so far -- titled: "Tell Congress: Stay Out of My Email!""

6 of 107 comments (clear)

  1. Oops, somebody noticed by Attila+Dimedici · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Translation, "I thought nobody would notice."

    --
    The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
    1. Re:Oops, somebody noticed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The fact that he even considered it in the first place is disturbing on its own.

    2. Re:Oops, somebody noticed by DaMattster · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No, Leahy's stance should never have been pro anything that erodes 4th Amendment protections. Our elected representatives are supposed to protect our rights, not sell them away. This is further proof positive that we need a third party. Both Democrats and Republicans want increasing control over us.

  2. Executive Order in 3... 2... 1... by hawks5999 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Whenever this stuff can't get through Congress it just ends up in a Friday night EO dump. Is this one important enough for Black Friday? We'll know by Monday.

  3. Re:No time like the present... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Insightful

    No problem! We can just simplify the process by setting up a large number of so called "certificate authorities", who we will trust implicitly and pay yearly fees for little chunks of math! Nothing could possibly go wrong, and we can have a comforting little padlock symbol for noobs...

  4. Re:No time like the present... by Score+Whore · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It does if you'd bother to look at the fingerprint and verify it's the same as last time. Which the browsers should do, but they don't because it cuts into their CA root key inclusion fees.