TMI staff report, 4-17-18
On April 17, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a per curiam opinion in United States v. Microsoft, dismissing the case as moot, vacating the Second Circuit opinion, and remanding with instructions to vacate the district court opinion.
The U.S. Justice Dept. had asked the High Court to dismiss the case as moot owing to passage of the CLOUD Act by Congress on March 23. The case dealt with the government’s right to obtain information stored on servers in foreign countries.
The government had also argued that Microsoft was moot because the government had obtained a new warrant under the CLOUD Act requiring Microsoft to produce the same information requested in the original warrant
Microsoft had agreed that the case should be rendered moot as long as the Court also vacated the judgment of the magistrate judge and the district court’s judgment adopting it.
The Media Institute had joined an amicus brief in support of Microsoft’s position in the case before the Supreme Court.