Laws That Say Otherwise

I have been forced to make a difficult decision: to become complicit in crimes against the American people or walk away from nearly ten years of hard work by shutting down Lavabit.  After significant soul searching, I have decided to suspend operations.  I wish that I could legally share with you the events that led to my decision.  I cannot.  I feel you deserve to know what's going on -- the first amendment is supposed to guarantee me the freedom to speak out in situations like this.  Unfortunately, Congress has passed laws that say otherwise.  As things currently stand, I cannot share my experiences over the last six weeks, even though I have twice made the appropriate requests.

...  This experience has taught me one very important lesson: without congressional action or a strong judicial precedent, I would _strongly_ recommend against anyone trusting their private data to a company with physical ties to the United States.

-- Lavabit Owner Ladar Levison, on shutting down the encrypted email service used by Edward Snowden in response to government demands, 8 August 2013