An issue with significant potential to affect the relationships between U.S. law enforcement and technology companies and their customers remains unresolved and could be destined either for the U.S. Supreme Court or a legislative fix. Back in 2014, a dispute emerged in the Southern District of New York over whether the U.S. government can compel Microsoft to produce email data in the United States that is stored on a server in Ireland. The issue turns on the government’s authority to seek warrants under the Stored Communications Act (SCA). The District Court denied Microsoft’s motion to quash the warrant, but last year the Second Circuit disagreed and ordered that the warrant be quashed.
The issue has been hotly contested, with amicus briefs filed by multinational technology companies such as AT&T, Apple and Verizon, advocacy groups such as the ACLU, and even the Government of Ireland. The question appears to be settled in the Second Circuit, and only days ago the New York Court of Appeals cited the Second Circuit’s reasoning in an opinion concerning the interplay between the SCA and New York State law. But courts in other circuits have recently declined to follow the Second Circuit, indicating that the issue is unresolved.
