A Look at the Amicus Briefs in United States v. Microsoft Corp

On December 13, 2017, amici curiae filed briefs in the United States v. Microsoft Corp case set to go before the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2017-2018 term. The case concerns the U.S. Justice Department’s access to an individual’s private emails stored at Microsoft’s Dublin data center. At issue in this case is whether the warrant provisions of the Stored Communications Act (SCA) – which is part of the broader Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) of 1986 – apply extraterritorially, such that they compel Microsoft, an electronic service provider, to produce private electronic communications stored on servers in Ireland for the United States government.