The U.S. Supreme Court will enter uncharted waters when hearing U.S. v. Microsoft whether Microsoft can be forced to hand over data stored overseas. In 2013 the company found that contents of e-mail sought by the FBI in a drug case was stored in a data center in Ireland and refused to surrender it. (ABA Journal, February 2018, by Mark Walsh)
Some argue that if the U.S. is successful in obtaining the data, it would empower foreign nations to seek information stored in the U.S. from U.S. companies with affiliates abroad. In many instances, the foreign nations afford no protections of due process and legal rights available under U.S. law. (Center for Democracy & Technology, July 30, 2014, press release)
The Reporters Committee on Freedom of the Press, January 18, 2018, filed an amici brief that asked the Court to address issues affecting journalists, that journalists rely on secure cloud-based documents in their work. It also cautioned against allowing foreign powers targeting the news media from gathering reporters’ electronic data and finally arguing that warrants for such data should not be treated as subpoenas.