Legal Question in Civil Rights Law in Nebraska
ECPA vs. Patriot Act
I was just curious as to whether or not the legal professionals out there have an opinion on how the USA Patriot Act of 2001 effected the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986?
The ECPA made it illegal for anyone not a party to the communications, to illegally intercept the private email and telephone calls of another person including law enforcement without a warrant, including cellular and cordless.
The Patriot Act of 2001 made it permissable for law enforcement to intercept such communications based on a national security and terrorism threat. It has been alleged law enforcement used the Patriot Act to further their own interests in pursuing alleged criminals and the like. What is not widely known is that many law enforcement departments and their officers never obeyed the ECPA when it was law prior to Patriot.
So how does one effect the other in the eyes of the legal profession? Thank you.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: ECPA vs. Patriot Act
Even following the enactment of ECPA there were exceptions for interception of communications outside the US and for national security purposes through court review under sealed findings. To the extent that Patriot follows those sorts of procedures it is probably valid. Much of what remains is constitutionally suspect. Early efforts at challenging the act were shot down in the wake of 9-11-01 and the threat to national security, but might not get such a free pass these several years later.
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