On September 9, 2015 the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan heard the arguments in Microsoft Search Warrant Case. Microsoft’s Digital Constitution site posted a helpful blog summarizing the Microsoft perspective in the case.
Here are some excerpts from the Microsoft Brief that appear on the blog post.
- “The Golden Rule applies as much to international relations as to other human relations. If the Government prevails here, the United States will have no ground to complain when foreign agents—be they friend or foe—raid Microsoft offices in their jurisdictions and order them to download U.S. citizens’ private emails from computers located in this country.” (Opening brief, p. 3)
- “The power of a subpoena to reach business records anywhere in the world has only ever applied to a company’s own records, not to private documents it holds in trust for its customers.” (Opening brief, p. 36)
- “…a customer’s private email correspondence is no different from the contents of a safe deposit box or the letter inside a FedEx envelope. Like those physical letters, an electronic message belongs to the customer alone, not the email provider.” (Opening brief, p. 44)
We will continue to periodically update on the case as it moves forward.
