Hudson Votes to Stop Government Intrusion
April 27, 2016
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 27, 2016
Hudson Votes to Stop Government Intrusion
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Representative Richard Hudson (NC-08) released the following statement after voting for bipartisan legislation he cosponsored to protect Americans’ emails from unwarranted government intrusion:
“A lot of folks are unaware that Washington’s bureaucrats can use an outdated law from the 1980s to access emails without a warrant, court order or subpoena. This is a huge invasion of privacy. Today’s legislation stops this abuse and extends the same Fourth Amendment protection and privacy that’s given to our snail mail to our digital communications. With such a strong bipartisan vote in the House, I’m hopeful the Senate will follow our example and vote to stop government intrusion and protect Americans from unwarranted searches.”
The Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA) is a decades-old, complex statute that governs the collection of evidence in a wide array of investigations. There is broad, bipartisan consensus that ECPA is outdated and contains insufficient protections for Americans’ privacy. The law was written long before email became a part of our everyday lives and currently allows the government to access any digital communication that is 180 days old or older without a warrant.
The Email Privacy Act (H.R. 699) modernizes ECPA to protect Americans’ privacy while also creating a uniform warrant standard for law enforcement to obtain the content of digital communications in criminal investigations. These updates protect Americans’ constitutional rights and provide law enforcement with the tools they need for investigations in the digital age to protect public safety.
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