In an op-ed for The Huffington Post, constitutional lawyer Bruce Fein argues that the U.S. Department of Justice should rely on Congress, not the courts, when running up against "ill-fitting and antiquated laws to invade electronic privacy," as the Constitution encourages. "Congress ... is the constitutionally designated branch for fashioning laws that optimally balance the cherished right to be let alone against reasonable law enforcement needs," Fein writes. "The inherent Executive Branch personality favors law enforcement over privacy because that bias is politically irresistible." Moving forward, the DOJ "should cease its efforts to enlist the third branch to amend the [1986 Stored Communications Act] through inventive interpretations and collaborate with Congress to perfect the [International Communications Privacy Act]," he continued. "The government is victorious whenever it salutes the Constitution."
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