Justice Department and Microsoft Set to Square Off Before Supreme Court in Landmark Data Privacy Case

On October 16, 2017, the Supreme Court granted the Department of Justice’s petition for a writ of certiorari in its dispute with Microsoft over access to private emails stored at Microsoft’s Dublin, Ireland data center. At issue is whether the warrant provisions of the Stored Communications Act (SCA) 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.