Will 2018 Bring Developments In Government Access To Electronic Records?

2018 should prove to be a particularly interesting year on the subject of government access to private electronic records, as 2017 has served as an interesting prelude to what's ahead:

• On November 29, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Carpenter v. United States. As I discussed in an analysis in June, the case addresses an individual's expectation of privacy in his or her historical cellphone location records, but raises broader issues of privacy and law enforcement under the decades-old Stored Communication Act. The Supreme Court's decision is expected in the first half of 2018.
• On February 27, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in U.S. v. Microsoft, in which it will look at whether a company must comply with a warrant for electronic information that has been stored overseas.