E-mail and the wiretap laws: Why Congress should add electronic communication to Title III's statutory exclusionary rule and expressly reject a ''good faith'' exception

In 1986, Congress passed the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, thereby revamping the Title III wiretap laws to bring new technologies that send and receive electronic communication, such as electronic mail, into the statutory framework of the laws governing wiretaps. However, Congress gave electronic communication less protection from government interception than it affords wire and oral communication. In particular; Congress did not include a statutory suppression remedy for electronic communication seized in violation of Title Ill's provisions. In this Article, the author argues that this discrimination threatens the growth of emerging electronic technologies, creates formalistic distinctions in the lair: and discourages law enforcement from vigilantly applying the provisions of title III. Furthermore, the author argues that Congress, in its revisions of Title III, included confusing language that clouded the status of the ''good faith'' exception to the exclusionary rule for Title III violations involving Mire and oral communication. The author concludes that Congress should revisit Title III, especially the statutory exclusionary rule, to provide a suppression remedy for illegal interception of electronic communication and to reject explicitly any ''good faith'' exception for both constitutional and statutory violations of Title III.