Guarding due process, electronic privacy

Fourth District

The way Americans use technology to communicate has changed at an incredible pace since 1986. Thirty years ago, cell phones were gigantic, brick-like novelties. Few homes had personal computers.

The term “social media” did not even exist. The Internet had existed for only a few years and was unknown to most Americans.

To illustrate just how many things have changed in the intervening years, to quote one of my colleagues in the House of Representatives, “Cabbage Patch dolls were flying off the shelves.”

The year 1986 was a different time, but it was also the last time that the E...