{"id":266,"date":"2017-10-18T17:33:50","date_gmt":"2017-10-18T17:33:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ielrblog.com\/?p=266"},"modified":"2017-10-18T17:34:35","modified_gmt":"2017-10-18T17:34:35","slug":"justice-department-microsoft-set-square-off-supreme-court-landmark-data-privacy-case","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ielrblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/10\/18\/justice-department-microsoft-set-square-off-supreme-court-landmark-data-privacy-case\/","title":{"rendered":"Justice Department and Microsoft Set to Square Off Before Supreme Court In Landmark Data Privacy Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, the Supreme Court granted the Department of Justice\u2019s petition for a writ of certiorari in its dispute with Microsoft over access to private emails stored at Microsoft\u2019s Dublin, Ireland data center. At issue is whether the warrant provisions of the Stored Communications Act (SCA) apply extraterritorially, such that they compel Microsoft, an electronic service provider to produce private electronic communications stored on servers in Ireland for the United States government.<\/p>\n

Background <\/em><\/p>\n

In December 2013, the Justice Department served a warrant to Microsoft, compelling the company to disclose information pertaining to a user\u2019s email account. The government asserted that it had probable cause to believe that the account was being used to facilitate criminal drug activity.<\/p>\n

The Stored Communications Act (SCA) \u2013 which is part of the broader Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986 \u2013 allows the government to require that an electronic communications provider disclose information about a particular communication upon being served a probable-cause-based warrant. \u00a0A federal magistrate judge issued such a warrant in this case.<\/p>\n

In response to the warrant, Microsoft turned over the information pertaining to the account stored on its U.S. servers, such as the user\u2019s address book. The company refused, however, to turn over the information stored in Dublin. Microsoft assigns accounts to particular data centers based on their proximity to users\u2019 country of residence. The account in question had been assigned to Microsoft\u2019s Dublin center, and thus all of the account\u2019s email content \u2013 the subject lines as well as content of emails \u2013 was stored solely in Dublin, not in the United States.<\/p>\n

Microsoft argued that the U.S. government could not invoke the Stored Communications Act to compel the production of data stored in a foreign country. Instead, the company stated that the U.S. government had to obtain the consent of the Irish government first, by utilizing an alternate channel established for obtaining such communications: the United States\u2019 Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT) with Ireland.<\/p>\n

A district court, however, affirmed the magistrate judge\u2019s ruling on de novo review, and held Microsoft in contempt for failing to comply with the warrant.<\/p>\n

The case then came before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. In a unanimous decision, the Second Circuit reversed the district court\u2019s ruling, reasoning that the lower court \u201clacked authority to enforce the Warrant against Microsoft,\u201d on the grounds that \u201c[n]either explicitly nor explicitly does the statue envision the application of its warrant provisions overseas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, the case is set to go before the Supreme Court during its 2017-2018 term.
\nModernizing Data Privacy Protections: The Role of Congress or the Courts? <\/em><\/p>\n

In a blog post<\/a> posted on October 16, 2017, Microsoft\u2019s President and Chief Legal Officer, Brad Smith, argued data privacy laws in the United States should be modernized. \u201cThe current law, ECPA, was enacted in 1986 when the World Wide Web was still a few years away from being invented and no one conceived of conducting most work and personal business online,\u201d Smith writes. \u201cA world connected by cloud services simply didn\u2019t exist. The ways in which we communicate have radically changed over the past three decades \u2014 but the laws governing those communications haven\u2019t. Current laws don\u2019t adequately support the needs of law enforcement anywhere in the world or protect our rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith stresses, however, that it is Congress, not the courts, who should take the helm in this effort. \u201cWe believe that rather than arguing over an old law in court, it is time for Congress to act by passing new legislation, such as the International Communications Privacy Act (ICPA) of 2017.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s argument here \u2013 that data privacy laws should be modernized by passing new legislation in Congress, rather than by challenging existing statutes in the courts \u2013 echoes the argument put forth in Microsoft\u2019s opposition brief<\/a>. \u201cCongress alone has the authority and the institutional competence to craft a new legislative scheme for a world not anticipated in 1986,\u201d Microsoft\u2019s counsel writes. \u201cAnd it has remedial options simply not available to this Court.\u201d Microsoft argues that the courts, in interpreting the Stored Communications Act, have traditionally employed an \u201call-or-nothing\u201d approach with regards to the question of extraterritoriality\u2013either law enforcement may compel production of all <\/em>communications stored abroad, or it may demand none of it. This approach thus risks disrupting \u201cthe \u2018harmony\u2019 between nations that is \u2018particularly needed in today\u2019s highly interdependent commercial world.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Interestingly, the digital privacy groups that submitted a joint amicus curiae brief in support of Microsoft\u2019s petition before the Second Circuit veered away from Microsoft\u2019s choice-of-forum argument. Rather than supporting Microsoft\u2019s assertion that it is the job of Congress, not the Court, to modernize the SCA, the privacy groups \u2013 namely, the Brennan Center for Justice, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Constitution Project, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation \u2013 make a different argument altogether. They state in their brief:<\/p>\n

Modern technology has dramatically expanded the reach of the doctrine far beyond records of bank transactions and telephone calls.\u00a0 The Supreme Court recognized this problem in Riley, reasoning that Fourth Amendment privacy protection must account for this new technological reality.\u00a0 There, in holding that cell phones may not be searched under the search-incident-to -arrest warrant exception, the court noted that modern cell phones\u2014just like cloud-based email\u2014are capable of storing a vast amount of personal information and thus deserve the highest privacy protections.<\/p>\n

Here, the amici curiae apply a Fourth Amendment analysis \u2013 an amendment that Microsoft does not even mention in its brief — to the question of whether the SCA applies extraterritorially. It remains to be seen whether the Supreme Court will be sympathetic to Microsoft\u2019s and the supporting amici curiae\u2019s arguments. Whether or not the Justices side with Microsoft, the line of reasoning they choose to privilege in their opinions \u2013either the choice-of-forum \u00a0or the Fourth Amendment analysis \u2013 will have implications for how similar legal quandaries are framed in the future.<\/p>\n

Take a look at the case filings here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, the Supreme Court granted the Department of Justice\u2019s petition for a writ of certiorari in its dispute with Microsoft over access to private emails stored at Microsoft\u2019s Dublin, Ireland data center. At issue is whether the warrant provisions of the Stored Communications Act (SCA) apply extraterritorially, such that they compel Microsoft, an electronic service […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-266","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-data-privacy","7":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nJustice Department and Microsoft Set to Square Off Before Supreme Court In Landmark Data Privacy Case | IELR Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/ielrblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/10\/18\/justice-department-microsoft-set-square-off-supreme-court-landmark-data-privacy-case\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Justice Department and Microsoft Set to Square Off Before Supreme Court In Landmark Data Privacy Case | IELR Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Yesterday, the Supreme Court granted the Department of Justice\u2019s petition for a writ of certiorari in its dispute with Microsoft over access to private emails stored at Microsoft\u2019s Dublin, Ireland data center. 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