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Hatch Statement on Supreme Court Decision to Review Microsoft Warrant Case

Statement

Date: Oct. 16, 2017
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Judicial Branch Criminal Justice

Today, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah)--the senior member and former Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Chairman of the Senate Republican High-Tech Task Force--released the following statement after the US Supreme Court decided to review the Microsoft Corp. v. United States case regarding extraterritorial warrants.

"The laws governing digital data were written more than 30 years ago and were never intended to reach across international borders," Hatch said. "If US law enforcement is given unfettered access to emails stored in other countries, what is to stop the governments of other countries from getting emails located in the United States? Regardless of the outcome of this case, Congress should modernize our digital privacy laws and pass ICPA, the International Communications Privacy Act. This bill provides a commonsense framework that ensures law enforcement has access to the information it needs while protecting people's rights. Our laws need to keep up with emerging technology, which is why I strongly urge my colleagues to pass this legislation."

Recently, BSA--the leading advocate for the global software industry before governments--spoke in support for ICPA and modernizing digital data laws in a video message:

Background:

Senator Hatch shared his disappointment with the Department of Justice's decision to seek Supreme Court review for the Microsoft Warrant Case in a statement earlier this year.

Previously, Senator Hatch spoke on the Senate floor about ICPA. He described the drawbacks of existing data privacy approaches and outlined his proposal to better protect consumer privacy and clarify US law enforcement's ability to obtain global electronic communications while respecting the data privacy laws of other countries.

ICPA was also praised by Microsoft President Brad Smith earlier this year in the Senate Judiciary Committee Crime and Terrorism Subcommittee hearing on "Law Enforcement Access to Data Stored Across Borders."


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