SEC Commissioners Slam E-mail Privacy Bill

Members of the Securities and Exchange Commission unanimously oppose a piece of legislation that would require the federal government to get a warrant in order to obtain old e-mails during an investigation.

At issue is H.R. 699, which passed the House unanimously in April. The bill would undo part of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act that considers e-mail messages more than 180 days old “abandoned” and allows them to be gathered by investigators with a subpoena or a court order instead of a warrant.

Because the SEC lacks the authority to obtain criminal warrants, the bill would stifle the agency’s ...