California Governor Vetoes Bill Requiring Warrant to Obtain Contents of Electronic Communications

Just the other day, I posted about California's SB 467 -- the bill that would require police to get a warrant before obtaining the content of online communication.

Governor brown ended up vetoing the bill.  He noted that police are already required to seek warrants under federal law, and pointed out that the bill introduces new notice requirements that will be an obstacle to law enforcement officers.

While these reactions to the bill are understandable, I think that the bill would help avoid any later confusion about the contents of online communications, since circuits have split on the issue already.  Moreover, the notice requirements would bring a lot of these cyber operations into the public eye, and there are provisions in the bill that would allow delayed notice in the event that notice would result in harm to individuals, or destruction of evidence, among other concerns.

The LA times reports here on this decision as well as on the many other bills that were signed into law or vetoed along with SB 467.