An overview of fed. law governing wiretapping and electronic eavesdropping. It also appends citations to state law in the area and contains a biblio. of legal commentary as well as the text of the Electronic Commun. Privacy Act (ECPA) and the Foreign Intell. Surveillance Act. The gov¿t. has been given narrowly confined authority to engage in electronic surveillance, conduct physical searches, install and use pen registers and trap and trace devices for law enforcement purposes under the ECPA and for purposes of foreign intelligence gathering under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. This report includes a brief summary of the expired Protect America Act, and of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 Amendments Act of 2008.

It is a federal crime to intentionally wiretap or electronically eavesdrop on the conversation of another without a court order or the consent of one of the parties to the conversation. Moreover, in eleven states, it is a state crime for anyone other than the police to intentionally wiretap and/or electronically eavesdrop on the conversation of another without the consent of all of the parties to the conversation. The federal crimes are punishable by imprisonment for up to five years and expose offenders to civil liability for damages, attorneys' fees, and possibly punitive damages. State crimes carry similar consequences. Even in states where one party consent interceptions are legal, they may well be contrary to the professional obligations of members of the bar. The proscriptions often include a ban on using or disclosing the fruits of an illegal interception. Statutory exceptions to these general prohibitions permit judicially supervised wiretapping or electronic eavesdropping conducted for law enforcement or foreign intelligence gathering purposes. Similar regimes -- proscriptions with exceptions for government access under limited circumstances -- exist for telephone records, e-mail and other forms of electronic communications.

Considers legislation to permit use of electronic surveillance devices by law enforcement officials in national security investigations, and allow admission of evidence obtained by electronic surveillance in Federal court trials involving national security.