[Infowarrior] - DOJ asks SCOTUS for Permission To Search Data Centers Anywhere In The World

[Richard Forno]

DOJ Asks The Supreme Court To Give It Permission To Search Data Centers Anywhere In The World

from the world-is-[potentially]-yours dept

Having been told "no" twice by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, the DOJ is asking the Supreme Court to overturn the decision finding Microsoft did not need to hand over communications stored in foreign data centers in response to a US warrant.

The Appeals Court told the DOJ that statutory language simply didn't agree with the premise pushed by the government: that US-issued warrants should allow the law enforcement to dig through "file cabinets" not actually located at the premises (United States) searched. The court noted jurisdictional limitations have always been part of the warrant process (although recent Rule 41 changes somewhat undercut this). That the information sought is digital rather than physical doesn't change this. The court suggested the DOJ take it up with Congress if it doesn't like the status quo. The DOJ has proposed legislation but likely feels a Supreme Court decision in its favor would be a swifter resolution.

The DOJ's 207-page petition [PDF] actually only contains about 30 pages of arguments. The bulk of the petition is made up of previous court decisions and oral argument transcripts covering the DOJ's losses at the lower level. The Table of Contents gets right to the point, utilizing the section header "The panel's decision is wrong" to set the tone for its rehashed arguments.

The DOJ quotes the dissenting judges from the Appeals Court's decision, one of which makes the ever-popular "appeal to 9/11" argument:

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https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20170626/05205137665/doj-asks-supreme-court-to-give-it-permission-to-search-data-centers-anywhere-world.shtml