Civil Liberties

By rejecting the Massie-Lofgren amendment to the defense spending bill, the U.S. House of Representatives is undermining Americans’ Fourth Amendment protections.

In a statement, IPI president Tom Giovanetti applauded Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) for a move to defend Americans’ Fourth Amendment protections by prohibiting warrantless backdoor searches and upholding robust encryption standards.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved a Ways and Means Committee-led bill stopping the IRS from targeting donors to tax-exempt organizations. The measure, the Preventing IRS Abuse and Protecting Free Speech Act (H.R. 5053), passed 240-182.

Is reform of our criminal justice system really possible given, the vast divide between Republicans and Democrats in Congress? One conservative joins me today to say "Yes!" and explains why.

As people who prize liberty and individual rights, and who are skeptical about government power, conservatives need to do a rethink on criminal justice.

Although House members recently passed the Email Privacy Act with unanimous consensus, some Republicans in the Senate are trying to kill the legislation. Why?

Presidential politics means we have only about two months left of useful legislative time, so it’s time for the Senate to get its act together and move the Email Privacy Act.

By a 419-0 vote, the House approved the Email Privacy Act (HR-699), which would protect the content of people's emails and electronic communications (see 1604260014). Approval of the measure, which updates part of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986, was hailed by privacy and technology associations, which said ECPA lagged behind the rapid advancement of technologies such as cloud computing.

IPI commends the U.S. House of Representatives for today’s unanimous support passing reforms to ECPA, a necessary step toward protecting Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights guarding against warrantless search and seizure of electronic data.