Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah) introduced a bill Tuesday that would require law enforcement to obtain a warrant before getting access to citizens' emails and other electronic communications.

The bill comes as an amendment to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, or ECPA, a 1986 law which many critics argue needs a refresh for the modern technological era. ECPA currently requires police to get a warrant only for emails and other digital communications younger than 180 days old.

Leahy, who was involved in passing the original ECPA, now recognizes it has been outmoded by the rapid and unforeseeable pace of technological change.

“No one could have imagined just how the Internet and mobile technologies would transform how we communicate and exchange information today,” said Leahy in a statement. “Privacy laws written in an analog era are no longer suited for privacy threats we face in a digital world. Three decades later, we must update this law to reflect new privacy concerns and new technological realities, so that our Federal privacy laws keep pace with American innovation and the changing mission of our law enforcement agencies.”

SEE ALSO: Google to Congress: Reform Email Privacy Law Now

Aside from requiring police to get a warrant based on probable cause before accessing citizens' emails, the bill also requires law enforcement to notify users when their messages are disclosed and provide them a copy of the search warrant within ten days. However, investigators can seek court orders that would delay notification.

Additionally, law enforcement will still be able to use various forms of subpoenas — which are easier to get than warrants — to request customers' names, addresses, session time records, IP addresses and other similar data from service providers. The bill also does not prohibit law enforcement from using subpoenas to access electronic communications sent to or from company's internal email systems.

The warrant requirements spelled out in the bill would apply only to the ECPA, and not to the Wiretap Act or the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

Leahy's ECPA reform efforts first cleared the Judiciary Committee last year, but they were stripped from a video privacy bill (the so-called "Netflix Amendment") to which he attached them before that bill was signed into law earlier this year.

The Leahy-Lee ECPA amendment bill in the Senate joins Rep. Zoe Lofgren's similar bill in the House of Representatives. Should both bills pass their respective chambers, any differences between the two would have to be reconciled before a final bill is sent to President Barack Obama's desk to become law.

Several communications providers, including Google, have long required law enforcement to get a warrant before handing over users' emails. The legal dissonance between ECPA and companies' actual practices would be cleared up should Leahy's bill pass.

The full text of Leahy's bill is embedded below. Should police need to have a warrant before reading your email? Share your thoughts in the comments.

ECPA Amendments Act of 2013

Correction: The original article said police need a warrant for emails older than 180 days, when in fact they need a warrant for emails younger than 180 days. We regret the error.

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