Texas Poised To Pass Unprecedented Email Privacy Bill

An anonymous reader writes "A bill has reached the desk of Texas Governor Rick Perry that would give stronger privacy protections to email accounts than exist in any other state. If Perry signs it (or simply declines to veto it before June 16th), the legislation would force law enforcement agencies to obtain a warrant before reading somebody's email, even if the email has been sitting on the server for a long time. 'As we've noted many times before, there are no such provisions in federal law once the e-mail has been opened or if it has been sitting in an inbox, unopened, for 180 days. In March 2013, the Department of Justice acknowledged in a Congressional hearing that this distinction no longer makes sense and the DOJ would support revisions to ECPA.' This bill passed the state legislature unanimously. The article points out that the legislation won't protect from federal investigations, but it will set a precedent that the U.S. Congress will surely notice. An attorney with the EFF said, 'It's significant as proof that privacy reform is not only needed, but also politically-feasible with broad bipartisan support. And hopefully that will impact federal ECPA reform efforts by getting people on both of sides of the political aisle to work together to make meaningful electronic privacy reform a reality. The more states that pass similar legislation, the more pressure it will put on Congress to keep up with the changing legal landscape.'"

Comments

Texas leads the way, again

[SplashMyBandit]

Lots of folks like to mis-characterize Texas and Texans, but as a foreigner they seem to be doing plenty of things right. Their state economy is not borked like California, they have low tax, they value individual rights more than overbearing 'nanny' governance, and they have good political leadership. Ted Cruz for Prez 2016 would not be a bad choice it seems - he's very smart and would stop the current rot in DC.

Re:Texas leads the way, again

[ArcherB]

If you think that Ted Cruz would be a serious presidential contender then you have no idea what you are talking about. I am a Texan and he is a joke to most of the state. As much eye rolling as he causes within the state, he would cause even more than Rick Perry did on the national stage. I am not saying your completely wrong, but please do a bit more research before thinking Cruz (or Perry) are responsible for much of anything that is right with our state.

Ted Cruz is a "joke to most of the state"? Tell me, genius, how did he win his Senatorial election by such a wide margin? He may be a joke in YOUR circles, but everyone I speak to thinks the man is brilliant, with the exception of the most rabid liberals who think that it is OK for the IRS to target conservatives for no other reason than they are conservatives.

Re:Texas leads the way, again

[girlintraining]

Lots of folks like to mis-characterize Texas and Texans, but as a foreigner they seem to be doing plenty of things right.

This legislation would only affect organizations and individuals within the state of Texas, whose customers are also within the State of Texas, when dealing with local and state authorities. And even with that very significant limitation, the fact that internet traffic is, by definition, interstate, means that this piece of legislation has next to zero chance of surviving in Federal court. Federal law and jurisdiction trumps state law; And all a court needs to say to put an end to this is say "Interstate commerce! Congress only! Denied."

Their state economy is not borked like California,

Off topic, but I'll bite. Texas is ranked 9 and California 14 in terms of federal tax dollars contributed versus taken as of 2007. Both are net positive, and within 1 standard deviation. Neither state economy is "borked".

they have low tax,

Continuing to go off topic... There's at least a million different taxes. Can you be more specific on which one?

they value individual rights more than overbearing 'nanny' governance,

The most important right, the right to life, is apparently eschewed -- Texas murders its own citizens at a rate higher than the rest of the country combined and has won numerous dubious awards for its human rights abuses, especially in prison. Whatever their values, their actions speak to a marked lack of respect for human life, a fact often highlighted in international press.

and they have good political leadership.

I'm not even sure how to approach this; It's fractally flamebait-worthy, if only because the popular opinion is that "good" should never appear in the same sentence as "political leadership", which itself is popularly held to be an oxymoron.

Ted Cruz for Prez 2016 would not be a bad choice it seems - he's very smart and would stop the current rot in DC.

Oooh, so epically off-topic now... le sigh. Okay then. Yes, another graduate of Harvard Law and Princeton will surely clean up the 'rot' of all the other politicians in Congress, most of whom also hold Ivy-league degrees. And I'm the Queen of England. And I don't want to vote for a man who thinks communists teachers at his alma matter are plotting to overthrow the government and often resorts to wild accusations of impropriety towards his opponents -- like suggesting a nominee to the secretary of defense position was accepting bribe money from North Korea. The dude's got a screw loose -- if you want to show how Texas is full of competent and rational people, make a better choice.