Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986 (ECPA, codified at 18 U.S.C. §§ 2510-2522) was enacted by the United States Congress to extend government restrictions on wire taps from telephone calls to include transmissions of electronic data by computer. Specifically, ECPA was an amendment to Title III of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 (the Wiretap Statute), which was primarily designed to prevent unauthorized government access to private electronic communications.
The ECPA also added new provisions prohibiting access to stored electronic communications, i.e., the Stored Communications Act,18 U.S.C. §§ 2701-12. The ECPA also included so-called pen/trap provisions that permit the tracing of telephone communications. §§ 3121-27. The ECPA has been amended by the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) (1994), the USA PATRIOT Act (2001), the USA PATRIOT reauthorization acts (2006), and the FISA Amendments Act (2008)
For definitions as may be relevant to the ECPA please refer to 18 U.S.C.A. § 2510(12)
SIMPLY PUT, THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT IS PROHIBITED BY THE CONSTITUTION AND FURTHER, BY FEDERAL LAW, FROM CASTING A BROAD NET THAT VIOLATES YOUR RIGHT PRIVACY UNDER THE PRETEXT OF DETECTING CRIMINAL ACTIVITY. It is clearly illegal as referenced above, however for unknown reasons the White Press releases and the Attorney General, Eric holder, have emphatically and repeatedly stated they have a right to inspect electronic communication under the pretext of national security and they deny that ECPA is applicable to them and they have ordered federal agencies to proceed.
Case Law: On Dec. 14, 2010, a 6th Circuit made a landmark pronouncement as part of the 98-page opinion: E-mail stored with commercial Internet service providers (ISP) has the same Fourth Amendment protection and expectation of privacy as phone calls and letters.
That section of the decision stemmed from government investigators’ actions in secretly subpoenaing NuVox, the ISP that stored Warshak’s e-mail. The subpoena gave the government access to 27,000 of Warshak’s e-mails without his knowledge or a search warrant.
“[T]he Fourth Amendment must keep pace with the inexorable march of technological progress, or its guarantees will wither and perish,” wrote Judge Danny Boggs.
United States v. Warshak is the first opinion to flat-out say e-mail may be private and constitutionally privileged, says Theodore Claypoole, a member at Womble Carlyle. “Up until now, no courts have made that bold of a statement.”
THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION IS INSTRUCTING FEDERAL AGENCIES TO SPY ON US CITIZENS WITHOUT PROBABLE CAUSE – THIS IS ILLEGAL AND IT MUST STOP! THEY (HOLDER AND OBAMA) ARE LYING TO THE PUBLIC ABOUT CASE LAW AND FEDERAL LAW AS IT PERTAINS TO ECPA AND WITH REGARD TO THE 4TH AMENDMENT OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES.
THIS IS AN AGGREGIOUS AND IMPEACHABLE OFFENSE AND A GROSS ABUSE OF POWER WHICH MUST NOT STAND.