Norquist, ACLU team up for privacy push

Three nonprofit advocacy groups will announce a new partnership on Monday to lobby Congress to expand privacy protections for emails and other private online content.

Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Democracy & Technology will join forces to launch "Digital 4th," which will lobby Congress to revise the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA).

The law, which Congress passed in 1986, only requires police to obtain a subpoena to read emails that have been opened or that are more than 180 days old. Privacy advocates argue the law is woefully out of date and that police should need a warrant to access emails and other private messages.

Another alliance of businesses and nonprofit advocacy groups, called "Digital Due Process," is already pushing to expand ECPA's privacy protections. In addition to the three members of Digital 4th, Digital Due Process also includes industry giants Apple, Google, Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft and AT&T, as well as the influential U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Greg Nojeim, a senior counsel for the Center for Democracy & Technology, said the new Digital 4th group is "backed by a lot of lobbying and public relations muscle that will help propel the issue forward."

Digital Due Process has not spent any money lobbying on the issue, according to disclosure forms, although its member companies have lobbied on the issue individually.

The House Judiciary Committee will hold a hearing on Tuesday morning to consider whether ECPA needs to be revised.

Revising the law to protect all electronic communications, regardless of how old they are, is a top goal for Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.).

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.) said earlier this month that modernizing the privacy law to “reflect our current digital economy” will be a priority for his committee.

The support of conservatives like Norquist and business groups like the Chamber of Commerce could help build support among Republicans for expanding the privacy protections.

Nojeim argued that the formation of Digital 4th "increases significantly the likelihood that ECPA reform will get done this Congress." 

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