UPDATE - Leahy scuttles his warrantless e-mail surveillance bill

WITHOUT A WARRANT...

CNET is reporting that Patrick Leahy, the influential Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, has dramatically reshaped his legislation in response to FBI and other law enforcement concerns. A vote on his bill, which now authorizes warrantless access to Americans' email, is scheduled for this week.

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CNET

Senate Bill Rewrite Lets Feds Read Your Emails Without A Warrant

Proposed law scheduled for a vote next week originally increased Americans' e-mail privacy. Then law enforcement complained. Now it increases government access to e-mail and other digital files, all without a warrant.

Leahy's rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies -- including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission -- to access Americans' e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant.

It also would give the FBI and Homeland Security more authority, in some circumstances, 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 police 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 American consumers by... requiring that the government obtain a search warrant."

Continue reading at CNET...

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UPDATE - Leahy scuttles his warrantless e-mail surveillance bill