Adding another case that grapples with the application of 20th century law in the digital age to its docket, the Supreme Court announced on Monday that it will review the U.S. Court of Appeals' ruling in United States v. Microsoft. At issue is the question of whether the U.S. government can compel an American company to produce data stored on a server physically located in a foreign country. Given the absence of a division among the lower courts, the justices' decision to review this issue signals that they consider it a very important one.
The case stems from Microsoft's refusal to comply with a search warrant requiring Microsoft to produce the contents of emails stored in Dublin, Ireland. At Microsoft's data center in Ireland, the company is also subject to the more stringent privacy protections found in Ireland and the European Union.