Today, the United States Supreme Court granted the Solicitor General’s petition for certiorari in United States v. Microsoft, No. 17-2, to decide “[w]hether a United States provider of email services must comply with a probable-cause-based warrant issued under 18 U.S.C. § 2703 by making disclosure in the United States of electronic communications within that provider's control, even if the provider has decided to store that material abroad.” The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit’s opinion below concluded that “§ 2703 of the Stored Communications Act does not authorize courts to issue and enforce against U.S.-based service providers warrants for the seizure of customer e-mail content that is stored exclusively on foreign servers.” Last week, SCOTUSblog reported that there appears to be no circuit split below on this issue.
Amy Howe summarizes the facts of the case here. Defender Services provides program materials on litigating wiretap and electronic surveillance issues here.