Federal appeals court rules valid search warrant required for e-mail search

[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit [official website] ruled [opinion, PDF] Tuesday that e-mail is entitled to Fourth Amendment [LII materials] protection. The 98-page opinion overturned the prison sentence of Steven Warshak, the founder of Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals Inc. [corporate website], who was convicted on 93 counts of conspiracy, money laundering and fraud in 2008. The court held that government reliance on the Stored Communications Act [18 USC 2701 et seq materials] did not warrant…