## Facts

- Federal prosecutors sought an order under the Stored Communications Act (SCA), 18 U.S.C. § 2703(a), requiring Microsoft to disclose the contents and related information of a specified email account.
- A magistrate judge found probable cause and issued the requested § 2703 “warrant” using Federal Rule of Criminal Procedure 41 procedures incorporated by the SCA.
- Microsoft’s architecture stored customer email content across distributed data centers; the target account’s content was stored in Dublin, Ireland.
- Microsoft produced responsive materials stored in the United States but refused to produce the account’s content stored in Ireland.
- Microsoft moved to quash the warrant insofar as it compelled production of content stored abroad, arguing the warrant lacked extraterritorial reach and exceeded territorial limits associated with Rule 41 warrants; Microsoft urged the government to use mutual legal assistance processes instead.

## Issues

1. Whether compelling a U.S.-based provider to produce email content stored on foreign servers under SCA § 2703 constitutes an impermissible extraterritorial application of the SCA.
2. Whether a § 2703 “warrant” should be treated, for territorial and execution purposes, like a traditional search warrant (territorially constrained) or like a subpoena (compelling production of material within the recipient’s custody or control regardless of location).
3. Whether Rule 41’s territorial limits bar enforcement of a § 2703 warrant when the requested data is stored outside the United States.
4. Whether international comity concerns or potential foreign-law conflicts require quashing or limiting the order.

## Decision

- The court denied Microsoft’s motion to quash and enforced the § 2703 warrant as to the requested email content stored in Ireland.
- The court characterized an SCA § 2703 warrant as a hybrid that, in execution, operates in key respects like a subpoena because it compels a provider to produce information within its possession, custody, or control rather than authorizing agents to conduct a physical search.
- The court held enforcement was a domestic application of the SCA because the statute’s relevant focus was compelled disclosure by the provider, and the compelled act of production occurred in the United States.
- The court rejected the argument that Rule 41’s territorial limits prevented compliance, reasoning that the execution of the SCA warrant occurred domestically through Microsoft’s production, not through an overseas law-enforcement search.
- The court found comity objections insufficient on the record, noting the statute did not condition process on use of mutual legal assistance and Microsoft had not shown a concrete legal conflict making compliance unlawful.

## Legal Principles

- An SCA § 2703 “warrant” is obtained on probable cause and uses warrant procedures, but its execution is directed to the service provider and is substantially analogous to subpoena-style compelled production.
- The presumption against extraterritoriality is not triggered where the statute’s operative conduct and focus are domestic; for § 2703, the pertinent conduct is the provider’s disclosure compelled within U.S. jurisdiction.
- A court may compel a recipient subject to its jurisdiction to produce materials within its possession, custody, or control even if the materials are stored abroad, when the compelled act of production is domestic.
- Rule 41’s geographic limits on physical searches do not bar compelled provider production under § 2703 where no government agents execute a search on foreign soil.
- Comity concerns and potential foreign-law conflicts may be relevant, but speculative or undeveloped conflicts do not justify reading territorial limits into § 2703 absent statutory text.

## Conclusion

The court held that an SCA § 2703 warrant could require Microsoft, a provider subject to U.S. jurisdiction, to retrieve and produce email content within its control even when the data was stored on servers outside the United States, because the legally relevant act was domestic compelled disclosure rather than an extraterritorial search.


In re Warrant to Search a Certain E-Mail Account Controlled & Maintained by Microsoft Corp., 15 F. Supp. 3d 466 (S.D.N.Y. 2014)