DOJ Seeks 2nd Circuit Rehearing in Microsoft Case Involving Emails Stored Overseas

DOJ asked the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to grant a panel rehearing or rehearing en banc in its effort to force Microsoft to turn over a customer's emails stored in Ireland (see 1610120014). In a filing Thursday, the department said the three-judge panel "erroneously concluded" that enforcing the warrant was an "impermissible extraterritorial application" (see 1607140071). DOJ said the panel noted that the focus of Section 2703 of the Stored Communications Act, which is part of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act, "was the privacy of stored communications, and not disclosure to the government." But the department said the "clear purpose" of the section "is to outline the circumstances in which a customer's privacy interest in the content of their emails must yield to the Government's interests in obtaining those emails through disclosure by the service provider." The department also said the 2nd Circuit's opinion has "created a regime where electronic communication service providers -- private, for-profit businesses answerable only to their shareholders -- can thwart legitimate and important criminal and national security investigations, while providing no offsetting, principled privacy protections."