The privacy of our email is protected by the ECPA, passed in 1986, which requires law-enforcement officials to obtain a warrant to intercept and read private email.
However, the law has a critical flaw: it does not require a warrant for emails "left on servers" for more than 180 days. This made sense when people downloaded their email and deleted it from servers, but it's completely obsolete in an era when email is left on servers so that people can access it from anywhere on any device.
A coalition of email service providers is seeking a revision of the law to treat email stored on servers the same as email stored on home computers. This revision should be written into law and signed by President Obama as quickly as possible to protect the privacy of American citizens' email.