Attorney General Eric Holder signed off on the controversial warrant application that the Justice Department used to obtain the personal emails of a Fox News reporter.. The warrant, which was obtained after the Justice Department identified Fox News reporter James Rosen as a possible criminal co-conspirator for communicating with a source who allegedly supplied him with classified information, allowed investigators to obtain two days The link for this article located at Wired is no longer available. . Attorney General Eric Holder's warrant for a Fox News reporter's emails highlights serious concerns over press freedom, government oversight, and the protection of investigative journalism.. Email Surveillance, Media Privacy, Government Warrant, Investigative Journalism. . Alex
In a landmark decision issued today in the criminal appeal of U.S. v. Warshak, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that the government must have a search warrant before it can secretly seize and search emails stored by email service providers. . Closely tracking arguments made by EFF in its amicus brief, the court found that email users have the same reasonable expectation of privacy in their stored email as they do in their phone calls and postal mail. EFF filed a similar amicus brief with the 6th Circuit in 2006 in a civil suit brought by criminal defendant Warshak against the government for its warrantless seizure of his emails. There, the 6th Circuit agreed with EFF that email users have a Fourth Amendment-protected expectation of privacy in the email they store with their email providers, though that decision was later vacated on procedural grounds. Warshak's appeal of his criminal conviction has brought the issue back to the Sixth Circuit, and once again the court has agreed with EFF and held that email users have a Fourth Amendment-protected reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of their email accounts.. Judicial decision affirms that email subscribers are entitled to Fourth Amendment rights, mandating search warrants for governmental access to emails.. Email Privacy Rights, Fourth Amendment Protections, Government Search Warrants. . LinuxSecurity.com Team
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