I was hobnobbing with Hollywood glitterati โ€” and taking my daughter to the Santa Monica pier โ€” last week so maybe I missed the discussion of this great news: Rep. Linda Sanchez and 14 other Representatives want to make about half of my email illegal! Hereโ€™s the relevant language from the proposed bill:

Whoever transmits in interstate or foreign commerce any communication, with the intent to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to a person, using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than two years, or bothโ€ฆ.
[โ€œCommunicationโ€] means the electronic transmission, between or among points specified by the user, of information of the userโ€™s choosing, without change in the form or content of the information as sent and received; โ€ฆ
[โ€œElectronic meansโ€] means any equipment dependent on electrical power to access an information service, including email, instant messaging, blogs, websites, telephones, and text messages.

Eugene Volokh has the details.