EFF: “We filed an amicus brief in a federal appellate case called United States v. Ackerman Friday, arguing something most of us already thought was a given—that the Fourth Amendment protects the contents of your emails from warrantless government searches. Email and other electronic communications can contain highly personal, intimate details of our lives. As one court noted, through emails, “[l]overs exchange sweet nothings, and businessmen swap ambitious plans, all with the click of a mouse button.” In an age where almost all of us now communicate via email, text, or some other messaging service, electronic communications are, in effect, no different from letters, which the Supreme Court held were protected by the Fourth Amendment way back in 1878. Most of us thought this was pretty uncontroversial, especially since another federal appellate court held as much in a 2010 case called United States v. Warshak. However, in Ackerman, the district court added a new wrinkle. It held the Fourth Amendment no longer applies once an email user violates a provider’s terms of service and the provider shuts down the user’s account…”