Second Circuit: Microsoft v. United States


Computers, Fourth Amendment, ECPA


When legislation referenced warrants, it used the term as a legal term of art, one that distinguishes them from subpoenas.  Extraterritorial application is therefore precluded.

As the statute focuses on the act of invasion of the user's privacy, data that would be accessed extraterritorially cannot be reached by warrants under the statute.


Concurrence in J -- Particularity of location is problematic in an electronic context, so the presumption against extraterritoriality doesn't afford a clear bar to conduct that the Act seems to proscribe.  Law needs to be rewritten.



Microsoft v. United States