TheU.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that the U.S. governmentcannot make MicrosoftCorp. produce customer emails stored in servers outside the U.S.

Microsoftin 2014 challenged arequest by the U.S. government to turn over emails stored in its Ireland datacenter, claiming that the warrant issued under the Stored Communications Actwould violate international law and treaties, since warrants traditionallycarry territorial limitations.

In aJuly 14 ruling, Circuit Judge Susan Carney agreed with Microsoft's argument,writing that "Congress did not intend the SCA's warrant provisions toapply extraterritorially." Carney added that since Microsoft had otherwisecomplied with the warrant, the company is no longer obligated to producematerials to the government.

Theappeals court has now reversed the District Court's earlier ruling againstMicrosoft which ordered the tech giant to turn over the emails to thegovernment.