AUDIO

Panelists:

- Kevin Bankston, Senior Counsel, Center for Democracy & Technology [Bio]
- Mary Ellen Callahan, Partner, Jenner & Block [Bio] - Moderator
- Richard Salgado, Director, Law Enforcement and Information Security, Google [Bio]
- Julian Sanchez, Research Fellow, CATO Institute [Bio]
- Mike Vatis, Partner, Steptoe & Johnson LLP [Bio]
- Jason Weinstein, formerly United States Department of Justice (USDOJ) [Bio Forthcoming]

The sex scandal involving CIA director David Petraeus is mercifully behind us. Yet policymakers in Washington certainly remain alarmed by one aspect of the incident: Under what authority was the FBI able to gain access to the general's private email communications and documents? How could a relatively minor harassment complaint from a Florida socialite to an FBI agent-acquaintance lead to a sweeping search of volumes and volumes of electronic records of the general and others? For lawmakers on Capitol Hill, it's much more than an unnerving introspective question about the privacy of their own emails. Leaders in Congress will debate in the 113th Congress how to update the laws regarding how, when and to what extent the FBI and other law enforcement agencies can access citizens' private digital communications. As of this moment, we do not know whether the FBI used a probable cause warrant to access these private electronic records. Thus, the Petraeus case presents a powerful teachable moment to understanding the upcoming debate in Congress about law enforcement's access to citizens' private electronic data. Our panel will use the Petraeus example to debate the planned updates to 4th Amendment electronic privacy laws including the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) and others.