When one of the most closely watched technology cases in years, United States v. Microsoft, was argued before the U.S. Supreme Court in February, the justices heard arguments for and against allowing the government to require Microsoft to produce emails that the company has stored overseas. The Court’s decision hinges on its interpretation of the Stored Communications Act (SCA), a law that was passed in 1986, a time when—as Justice Ginsburg pointed out during the oral arguments that day—“no one ever heard of clouds. This kind of storage didn't exist.”
In an article for Wired, Morrison & Foerster counsel David Newman explains why this point of Justice Ginsburg’s as well as other significant factors lead him to believe that the justices’ decision—irrespective of which party it ultimately favors—will put pressure on Congress to enact new legislation that does a far better job of resolving this privacy issue than the justices ever could as the law currently stands.
Learn how the recently introduced CLOUD Act would resolve the issue presented by United States v. Microsoft in a way that would satisfy both parties. Read David Newman’s piece in Wired.