A bipartisan group of legislators is asking Attorney General Loretta Lynch to help revise the laws that put Microsoft and the Department of Justice (DOJ) at odds in a case that the DOJ is currently challenging.
The Justice Department is currently seeking to overturn a ruling that said Microsoft did not have to turn over emails stored in a foreign server despite a warrant. Instead, Microsoft would have to comply with the laws of the nation that the server was in — in this case, Ireland.
{mosads}The lawmakers who sent a letter to Lynch on Friday — Sens. Christopher Coons (D-Del.) and Orin Hatch (R-Utah) and Reps. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) and Tom Marino (R-Pa.) — are sponsors of the pending International Communications Privacy Act. That legislation would update the framework for obtaining evidence across borders.
The letter asks the attorney general to help “fine tune” the bill.
“[W]hen technology companies receive demands from U.S. law enforcement to turn over data on behalf of foreign customers,” reads the letter, “they are forced to make a difficult decision: either comply with the demand and satisfy U.S. law and risk violating the privacy laws of the host country, or challenge U.S. law enforcement’s request in order to comply with the laws of the host jurisdiction. No one should be placed in this untenable situation.”
In a statement, Hatch suggested that it should be Congress’s job to smooth the impasse.
“Federal judges have rightly concluded that current law does not provide U.S. law enforcement with authority to access data stored overseas. Ultimately, Congress—rather than the courts—should establish a legal standard for accessing extraterritorial communications,” he said.