On 31 July, the chief judge of the Southern District of New York
delivered the latest in a series of controversial judgments
stemming from a test case brought by Microsoft in an
extra-territorial warrant issued under the U.S. Stored
Communications Act ('SCA'). In the third ruling on the
matter, the court found in favour of the U.S. government, upholding
the warrant and ordering that Microsoft turn over customer emails
stored in a data centre in Ireland. The District Court agreed to
stay the order while the decision is appealed further.
In the wake of Edward Snowden's revelations about the
activities of national security services across the globe, tech
companies have adopted an increasingly tough stance in the face of
information requests. As a result, Apple, AT&T, Cisco and
Verizon joined the bid to quash the warrant and supported
Microsoft's argument that the SCA should not be interpreted to
allow warrants to be issued for the search and seizure of data
stored
