Impractical and Unconstitutional: The Stored Communications Act Post-Carpenter
Richard McCutcheon*1 [This essay is available in PDF at this link] Introduction The Stored Communications Act (SCA)[1] has generated numerous practical headaches for academics and judges as digital technology advances in scope and importance.[2] Created in 1986 as part of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), the SCA established the statutory regime that governs access to stored electronic communications by the government and third parties.[3] The SCA has been repeatedly criticized for being outdated and ill-suited for modern technology.[4] Despite a decade of continuous efforts to reform the SCA, none have been successful.[5] Certain provisions of the SCA are not only unintuitive and confusing […]

