US Government Smacked Down In Court, International Server Access Not Granted

The US government and Microsoft have been butting heads over access to the tech company’s servers in Dublin, Ireland for some time now. A lower court decision had already rebuffed the attempt by Big Brother to overreach and the appeal received similar treatment. Now, a Supreme Court case might be in the works, but the previous rulings suggest that the Justice Department is in for an uphill battle.

The Justice Department has been trying to access the overseas Microsoft server for a case involving a drug case for some time, The Verge reports and tried to argue that it had the right to do so because the servers were still under the US warrant jurisdiction. The three judges presiding over the case didn’t see it that way, effectively shutting down the government’s attempts.

Declaring that the Stored Communications Act can’t be used in instances where the servers are based offshore has some significant ramifications for law enforcement as a whole. For one thing, it sets the precedent that simply storing data overseas puts the information flatly out of the reach of U.S. federal officials.

According to Peter Carr, the spokesperson for the Justice Department, the agency is currently looking into its options, Ars Technica reports. Considering that going to the Supreme Court is one of these options, the most viable one, in fact, Microsoft could be looking at round three.

Within the court of appeals, the opinions were actually split right down the middle, with some agreeing with the government. In fact, Judge Dennis Jacobs said that the location of the data’s storage was irrelevant since Microsoft could just willingly provide it in cooperation with the U.S. warrant served. Unfortunately for the government, there weren’t enough votes to actually merit a rehearing of the case.

Microsoft seems to be staying silent about the results for the moment. Even so, this is considered a great victory for tech companies.