Opinion

So-Called Email Privacy Bill Re-Authorizes Bureaucrat Snooping Of Emails And More

Font Size:

Members of Congress and many privacy advocates are busy selling the public on the Email Privacy Act by rightly claiming that government bureaucrats must first get warrants from neutral judges before they may obtain and read our emails.

The trouble is, as reported by The Daily Caller (“House Bill Lets Bureaucrats Read Your Email Without A Warrant”), this bill re-authorizes, blesses and encourages the very types of violations of the Fourth Amendment its proponents so righteously claim they are stopping — and even more.

To call the selling of this bill false advertising is being generous. It’s more like selling out the rest of America to protect special interests.

The bill purports to correct a flaw in an old law, the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), under which government may use what are called “administrative subpoenas” to get our emails older than 18 months from third-party storage now called the “cloud.” That term was not known when ECPA was enacted because the cloud had not yet been invented.

Administrative subpoenas are government warrants to obtain papers, records, pictures, metadata, and more. They are issued unilaterally by government agencies, meaning without approval by neutral judges after “oath and affirmation” of probable cause that some law is being violated. Those requirements are in the Fourth Amendment, which helps protect the security of our “persons, houses, papers and effects.” Bureaucrats may issue administrative subpoenas based merely on “curiosity,” a defense long used by Peeping Toms.

With peacock pride, advocates for the Email Privacy Act state what Americans know should be true: Government bureaucrats may obtain and read emails only with warrants signed by judges. Cloud service providers would never again need to spend money, time and resources responding to judge-less administrative subpoenas for our private emails.

Inexplicably, the bill then re-authorizes and blesses the use of judge-less administrative subpoenas by federal and state agencies targeting every other person, business or nonprofit organization in America. What’s good for Google isn’t good for the rest of us, apparently.

Proponents say the bill merely acknowledges current law under which there are over 300 federal statutes and some unknown number of state statutes authorizing judge-less administrative subpoenas.

The Email Privacy Act, however, will result in more administrative subpoenas being issued. Instead of one-stop violations of the Fourth Amendment, bureaucrats will now issue administrative subpoenas to multiple parties — just not to cloud service providers, and not just for our emails. Taxpayers, after all, are financing their violations of the Fourth Amendment.

The Washington Post recently reported how government inspectors use judge-less administrative subpoenas to obtain phone records of those who disclose illegal government conduct to the news media. Reporter Jerry Markon writes, “There is a way for the federal government to easily obtain your phone and other records. Few people know about it. And when you get one, there’s not much you can do to fight it.”

The government’s message is clear: When someone catches the government breaking the law, don’t call a reporter.

That’s consistent with the history of why we have the Fourth Amendment. England’s Star Chamber, synonymous with secretive abuse of power, bypassed judges and issued their own warrants to grab private papers and books to silence critics of the Crown and religious dissidents. The Fourth Amendment is paramount law instituting procedural safeguards against such arbitrary abuses of power.

The question must be asked: Why does legislation being sold to the public on the correct basis that the government must obtain warrants from neutral judges before getting our emails, turn around in the very same legislation to bless the use of judge-less administrative subpoenas? Is this Fourth Amendment schizophrenia just greasing the Washington skids for special interests? It certainly sends a clear signal to federal and state bureaucrats: Go ahead and subpoena the hell out of everyone, but just leave Google and the other cloud service providers alone.

The Fourth Amendment stands between us and a soft police state by ensuring that government has some verifiable and objective suspicion that a law may have been broken before government may snoop, invade and trespass on our personal and business private property and privacy.

Congressional hypocrisy and playing footsie with special interests is nothing new. But blowing smoke using the Bill of Rights is an unacceptable and dangerous sign of the weakness or constitutional corruption from our leaders in DC.

Mark J. Fitzgibbons is co-author with Richard Viguerie of The Law That Governs Government.

PREMIUM ARTICLE: Subscribe To Keep Reading

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!

Sign Up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
Sign up

By subscribing you agree to our Terms of Use

You're signed up!
BENEFITS READERS PASS PATRIOTS FOUNDERS
Daily and Breaking Newsletters
Daily Caller Shows
Ad Free Experience
Exclusive Articles
Custom Newsletters
Editor Daily Rundown
Behind The Scenes Coverage
Award Winning Documentaries
Patriot War Room
Patriot Live Chat
Exclusive Events
Gold Membership Card
Tucker Mug

What does Founders Club include?

Tucker Mug and Membership Card
Founders

Readers,

Instead of sucking up to the political and corporate powers that dominate America, The Daily Caller is fighting for you — our readers. We humbly ask you to consider joining us in this fight.

Now that millions of readers are rejecting the increasingly biased and even corrupt corporate media and joining us daily, there are powerful forces lined up to stop us: the old guard of the news media hopes to marginalize us; the big corporate ad agencies want to deprive us of revenue and put us out of business; senators threaten to have our reporters arrested for asking simple questions; the big tech platforms want to limit our ability to communicate with you; and the political party establishments feel threatened by our independence.

We don't complain -- we can't stand complainers -- but we do call it how we see it. We have a fight on our hands, and it's intense. We need your help to smash through the big tech, big media and big government blockade.

We're the insurgent outsiders for a reason: our deep-dive investigations hold the powerful to account. Our original videos undermine their narratives on a daily basis. Even our insistence on having fun infuriates them -- because we won’t bend the knee to political correctness.

One reason we stand apart is because we are not afraid to say we love America. We love her with every fiber of our being, and we think she's worth saving from today’s craziness.

Help us save her.

A second reason we stand out is the sheer number of honest responsible reporters we have helped train. We have trained so many solid reporters that they now hold prominent positions at publications across the political spectrum. Hear a rare reasonable voice at a place like CNN? There’s a good chance they were trained at Daily Caller. Same goes for the numerous Daily Caller alumni dominating the news coverage at outlets such as Fox News, Newsmax, Daily Wire and many others.

Simply put, America needs solid reporters fighting to tell the truth or we will never have honest elections or a fair system. We are working tirelessly to make that happen and we are making a difference.

Since 2010, The Daily Caller has grown immensely. We're in the halls of Congress. We're in the Oval Office. And we're in up to 20 million homes every single month. That's 20 million Americans like you who are impossible to ignore.

We can overcome the forces lined up against all of us. This is an important mission but we can’t do it unless you — the everyday Americans forgotten by the establishment — have our back.

Please consider becoming a Daily Caller Patriot today, and help us keep doing work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness. Help us train a new generation of news reporters who will actually tell the truth. And help us remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country's greatness.

In return for membership, Daily Caller Patriots will be able to read The Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission. We know the ads drive you crazy. They drive us crazy too. But we need revenue to keep the fight going. If you join us, we will cut out the ads for you and put every Lincoln-headed cent we earn into amplifying our voice, training even more solid reporters, and giving you the ad-free experience and lightning fast website you deserve.

Patriots will also be eligible for Patriots Only content, newsletters, chats and live events with our reporters and editors. It's simple: welcome us into your lives, and we'll welcome you into ours.

We can save America together.

Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.

Signature

Neil Patel