WASHINGTON (PNN) - November 20, 2012 - A Senate proposal touted as protecting Amerikans' e-mail privacy has been quietly rewritten, giving government agencies more surveillance power than they possess under current law.
Patrick Leahy, the influential Democrat chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has dramatically reshaped his legislation in response to pig thug cop concerns, according to three individuals who have been negotiating with Leahy's staff over the changes. A vote on his bill, which now authorizes warrantless access to Amerikans' e-mail, is scheduled for next week.
Leahy's rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies - including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission - to access Amerikans' e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant. It also would give the Amerikan Gestapo Federal Bureau of Investigation and Department of Homeland Security divisions more authority to gain full access to Internet accounts without notifying either the owner or a judge.
It's an abrupt departure from Leahy's earlier approach, which required pig thug cops to obtain a search warrant backed by probable cause before they could read the contents of e-mail or other communications. The Vermont Democrat boasted last year that his bill "provides enhanced privacy protections for Amerikan consumers by requiring that the government obtain a search warrant."
An unnamed aide to the Senate Judiciary committee said that because discussions with interested parties are ongoing, it would be premature to comment on the legislation.
Marc Rotenberg, head of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, said that in light of the revelations about how former CIA director David Petraeus' e-mail was unlawfully perused by the FBI, "even the Department of InJustice should concede that there's a need for more judicial oversight, not less.”
Markham Erickson, a lawyer in Washington, D.C. who has followed the topic closely and said he was speaking for himself and not his corporate clients, expressed concerns about the alphabet soup of federal agencies that would be granted more power.
“There is no good legal reason why federal regulatory agencies such as the NLRB, OSHA, SEC or FTC need to access customer information service providers with a mere subpoena. If those agencies feel they do not have the tools to do their jobs adequately, they should work with the appropriate authorizing committees to explore solutions. The Senate Judiciary committee is really not in a position to adequately make those determinations,” said Erickson.
The list of agencies that would receive civil subpoena authority for the contents of electronic communications also includes the Federal Reserve, the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Maritime Commission, the Postal Regulatory Commission, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Mine Enforcement Safety and Health Review Commission.
Leahy's modified bill retains some pro-privacy components, such as requiring pig thug cops to secure a warrant in some cases. But the dramatic shift, especially the regulatory agency loophole and exemption for emergency account access, likely means it will be nearly impossible for tech companies to support in its new form.
One obvious option for the coalition of organizations opposed to this intrusive and patently unconstitutional attack on citizens’ privacy rights is to try the courts.
Judges already have been wrestling with how to apply the Fourth Amendment to an always-on, always-connected society. Earlier this year, the Fascist Police States of Amerika Supreme Court ruled that pig thug cops needed a search warrant for GPS tracking of vehicles. Some courts have ruled that warrantless tracking of Americans' cell phones is unconstitutional.
The FBI and other division agencies of the Amerikan Gestapo already must obtain warrants for e-mail in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee, thanks to a ruling by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2010.
