Conservative and Liberal Convergence on Privacy Reforms

While bridging the divide between liberal and conservatives is a rare feat nowadays, Electronic Communications Privacy Reform represents the perfect opportunity for the two sides to come together and achieve meaningful progress. Having long been criticized as outdated, lawmakers from both sides of the isle are seeking to bring the Electronic Privacy Reform Act (ECPA) into the 21st century. Right now subpoenas are all that is needed to access someone’s e-mail content and not a judge signed warrant. Given how easy it is for one to get a subpoena, moving to a system that makes it mandatory to access someone’s content through a warrant only makes sense. Making this change would send a huge signal that the United States is serious not only about protecting is citizens Fourth Amendment rights but also in having a policy that is suited for the times.  

As such, Grover Norquist of ATR and Laura Murphy of the ACLU authored an Op-Ed that ran in Politico on Monday March 18th.

Mr. Norquist brought more attention to the issue after the House Judiciary Subcommittee hearing on Tuesday, March 19th in the Huffington Post

To continue to bring attention to this issue, Katie McAuliffe of Americnas for Tax Reform and Executive Director of Digital Liberty, works with the AmericanCivil Liberties Union and the Center for Democracy and Technology in the newly formed lobbying effort, Digital4th.  Digital4th applauded Senator Leahy and Senator Lee's warrant standard for content legislation also introduced on Tuesday in a recent press release.