Stored Communications Act
19 Articles

We Now Know What Information the FBI Can Obtain from Encrypted Messaging Apps
Despite its “going dark” claims, the FBI can obtain a remarkable amount of user data from secure messaging apps that collectively have several billion global users.

Q&A on Court Ordering Facebook to Disclose Content on Myanmar Genocide
Implications for future investigations and more...

Congress’ Access to Individuals’ Private Communications: The Jan. 6 Committee’s Troubling Precedent
How and why federal law — Stored Communications Act — and Constitution may block January 6 Committee’s ability to subpoena telecommunications content.

Four Common Sense Fixes to the CLOUD Act that its Sponsors Should Support
Congress is quietly but intensively debating the CLOUD Act, a bill which would have a serious impact on privacy rights, and it may be attached to an omnibus spending bill this…

Symposium Recap: We Need the Cloud Act To Save Us & What Bill Dodge Got Right
Arguments in the Microsoft Ireland case are now less than a week away. Despite the desires of many (including me) that Congress move quickly to pass the CLOUD Act – and thereby…

Microsoft, Ireland, and the Rest of the World
United States v. Microsoft will be practically significant for its effect on law enforcement’s ability to access data stored abroad, and it has the potential to be doctrinally…

The Microsoft Design Decisions That Caused this Mess
I need not spend much space on the merits of United States v. Microsoft, the case about the extraterritoriality of email search warrants that the Supreme Court will decide this…

Microsoft (Ireland) and the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure
Microsoft (Ireland) raises a difficult policy question about when and how U.S. law enforcement may access cross-border data. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court is seemingly set to…

“Extraterritorial” Is Not a Bad Word, Even on the Internet
In the world of Internet policy, it is a slur to call something an assertion of extraterritorial jurisdiction. Coverage of, for example, Canada’s recent ruling against Google…

United States v. Microsoft: Why the Government Should Win the Statutory Interpretation Argument
In United States v. Microsoft, the U.S. Supreme Court will determine the geographic scope of Section 2703 of the Stored Communications Act (SCA), which allows the government to…

Microsoft Ireland: Extraterritoriality Step Zero
United States v. Microsoft is a fascinating case because it appears at the cross-roads of so many different areas of the law—the Fourth Amendment, criminal law, data privacy,…

The Parties in U.S. v. Microsoft Are Misinterpreting the Stored Communications Act’s Warrant Authority
United States v. Microsoft comes to the court in stark terms. The case involves a search warrant demanding that Microsoft turn over stored emails from a server in Ireland. That…