Fourth Circuit Extensively Quotes Ropes & Gray Amicus Brief in Important Privacy Ruling

In Hately v. Watts, an important decision on e-mail privacy, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals extensively quoted an amicus brief submitted by Ropes & Gray on behalf of the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and New America's Open Technology Institute. The Court ruled that opening an e-mail does not strip the message of vital privacy protections under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

The Fourth Circuit's decision is available here, and the brief is available here. The CDT's press release about the decision is available here.

The Ropes & Gray team was led by IP litigation partner Jim Batchelder.