AG Balderas & Bipartisan Coalition of Attorneys General Urge Congress to Pass the CLOUD Act

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: February 21, 2018

Contact: James Hallinan (505) 660-2216

Balderas: “It’s absurd and contrary to the rule of law that global corporations would seek to shield evidence of horrific crimes like child exploitation and murder committed in the United States on foreign servers”

Albuquerque, NM – In a bipartisan letter signed by Attorney General Hector Balderas and the attorneys general of 35 other states, the National Association of Attorneys General today urged Congress to pass the Clarify Lawful Overseas Use of Data (“CLOUD”) Act. The CLOUD Act would update and amend several provisions of the Stored Communications Act (“SCA”).

“It’s absurd and contrary to the rule of law that global corporations would seek to shield evidence of horrific crimes like child exploitation and murder committed in the United States on foreign servers,” said Attorney General Hector Balderas. “Our bipartisan coalition is calling on Congress to act so that we may pursue justice for countless innocent victims in New Mexico and across the United States.”

Under the SCA, a law enforcement agency may obtain a warrant to search an individual’s email or other online account if a reviewing court finds probable cause that the account contains evidence of a crime. Once issued, an SCA warrant is served on a service provider who must then collect the requested data and provide it to law enforcement. State and local law enforcement agencies routinely use SCA warrants to investigate all manner of local crime, from drug trafficking to murder to child sexual exploitation.

Recently, however, some service providers have argued that an SCA warrant cannot be enforced when the data being sought is stored on a foreign server, even if the provider and the customer who created the data are in the United States and that data can be accessed from the United States. The providers and others have argued that requiring compliance with an SCA warrant in this situation would be an extraterritorial application of a domestic law and would raise significant privacy and international comity concerns. This dispute has spawned litigation across the country, including the case of United States v. Microsoft, which is currently pending in the United States Supreme Court. Attorney General Balderas previously joined an amicus brief in that case on behalf of 35 states and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.

Today’s letter urges Congress to pass the CLOUD Act as “an important step toward resolving this dispute.” The CLOUD Act “both confirms law enforcement’s ability to obtain probable-caused based warrants for electronic communications stored abroad and creates a clear avenue for service providers to challenge an SCA warrant that targets a foreign person and which would require a provider to violate foreign law. The Act also creates incentives for our foreign partners to enter into bilateral agreements that will facilitate cross-border criminal investigations, while ensuring that privacy and civil liberties are respected.”

Today’s letter was also joined by the attorneys general of Alabama, Alaska, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

Please see attached for a copy of today’s letter.

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