03/02/2020 In re 381 Search Warrants Directed to Facebook, Inc. :: 2017 :: New York Court of Appeals Decisions :: New York Case Law :: New York Law :: US … While Facebook's appeal was still pending, some of the targeted Facebook users were indicted for crimes stemming from the disability fraud investigation. The warrants and the investigator's supporting affidavit were eventually unsealed by orders of Supreme Court, and Facebook was then permitted to notify the targeted individuals of the existence of the warrants. Despite the unsealing orders, however, the District Attorney's Office refused to disclose the supporting affidavit to Facebook or the general public. Facebook, therefore, moved for an order compelling disclosure of the affidavit. The District Attorney's Office opposed the motion, arguing that the unsealing orders did not render the affidavit available to the public, and asserting that the affidavit had not yet been provided to the targeted individuals who were being criminally prosecuted. Supreme Court denied Facebook's motion to compel disclosure of the affidavit, and Facebook appealed that order, as well. In a single order, the Appellate Division dismissed both of Facebook's appeals on the ground that they were taken from nonappealable orders (132 AD3d 11 [1st Dept 2015]). As relevant here, the Appellate Division explained that "[d]irect appellate review of interlocutory orders issued in a criminal proceeding is not available absent statutory authority" (id. at 18). Inasmuch as "neither CPL article 690[, governing warrants], nor CPL article 450, which sets forth when a criminal appeal can be taken, provides a mechanism for a motion to quash a search warrant, or for taking an appeal from a denial of such a motion," the Appellate Division concluded that the orders denying Facebook's motions were not appealable (id.). In so holding, the Appellate Division rejected Facebook's request that the court treat the warrants as civil subpoenas for appealability purposes (see id. at 1820). This Court granted Facebook leave to appeal (26 NY3d 914 [2015]), and we now affirm. II. The warrants in question were issued, in accordance with the procedures of CPL article 690, pursuant to Title II of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, officially entitled the "Stored Wire and Electronic Communications and Transactional Records Access" and commonly referred to as the Stored Communications Act or the SCA (see Electronic Communications Privacy Act, Pub L 99—508, 100 Stat 1848 [1986] [codified as amended at 18 USC §§ 2701 et seq.]). When enacting the SCA, Congress observed that the "law must advance with the technology to ensure the continued vitality of the [F]ourth [A]mendment" (S REP 99-541, 99th Cong, 2nd Sess, reprinted in 1986 US Code Cong & Admin News at 3555, 3559). The SCA was, therefore, meant "to protect privacy interests in personal and proprietary information" transmitted through then-emerging computerbased forms of communication, but it was also enacted to strike a "balance" between https://law.justia.com/cases/new-york/court-of-appeals/2017/16.html 4/44