CNET: Feds try again for wiretapping conviction

After a panel of federal judges in New England ruled that an internet service provider (ISP) did not violate federal laws when copying user emails for its own perusal, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) petitioned for the whole First Circuit to re-hear the case in an attempt to boost protections against email intrusions, including those by the government. The unusual move - unusual in that the DOJ seldom seeks to enhance protections against its own investigators - was joined with an amicus brief by a group of civil liberties groups.

The two judges who earlier ruled for the ISP said that the existing wiretapping laws did not make illegal the technical method by which the emails were copied. Taking this strict construction, they said making the exploited method illegal would take a new act of Congress.

A cynic might note that acts of Congress tend to be more sweeping than necessary for original objectives, and that perhaps the DOJ's current position is inspired by fear that any new privacy protection law enacted might prove broader than merely shoring up the protections Congress intended to grant with the current law.