Government Documents, Laws, Testimonies or Reports and Federal Privacy Law

This Congressional Research Service report analyzes the Privacy Act, the Federal Information Security
Management Act, Office of Management and Budget Guidance, the Veterans Affairs Information Security Act, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, and the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act. This report will be updated.

A three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has held unanimously that the Fourth Amendment applies to e-mail. When it comes to government searches, e-mail is analogous to a sealed envelope. As a result of the case, Warshak v. USA, certain laws allowing warrantless access to e-mail, such as the Stored Communications Act and various provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, are unconstitutional, at least within the jurisdiction of the 6th Circuit Court (Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky, and Tennessee). The court pointedly recognized the evolving role of e-mail: "It goes without saying that like the telephone earlier in our history, e-mail is an ever-increasing mode of private communication, and protecting shared communications through this medium is as important to Fourth Amendment principles today as protecting telephone conversations has been in past."

The President directed top officials at the Departments of Education, Justice, and Health and Human Services to participate in a federal review of the broad questions raised by the shooting tragedy at Virginia Tech.

This report is a review of their findings and includes recommended actions the federal government can take to support state and local communities and ensure that the federal government and federal law are not obstacles to achieving these goals.