Microsoft Properly Barred From Telling USC About Email Warrant

Microsoft Corp. failed to convince a California appellate court that an order not to disclose the existence of a warrant to a trusted official at the University of Southern California was unlawful.

The nondisclosure order didn’t violate Microsoft’s First Amendment rights, and was valid under California’s California’s Electronic Communications Privacy Act, Justice Armen Tamzarian, said for the California Court of Appeal, Second District.

The Los Angeles Police Department issued a warrant seeking information from the email account of a USC graduate student who was later arrested for sexual assault. It also submitted a sealed affidavit in support of the warrant, ...