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 … high school students who are unlikely to have themselves been suspects in the investigation. The warrants compelled Facebook to produce not only any and all text, photos, or videos a user had shared with her limited universe of friends, but also any private messages exchanged between the user and another individual (who could have been a spouse, doctor, religious figure, or attorney), as well as information the user had chosen to no longer share with anyone, such as a previous e-mail address, a deleted friend, or a hidden post, and information the user had never intended to share with anyone, such as her searches and location. It also compelled Facebook to produce content shared by users who were not named in the 381 warrants, and may not even have known anyone named in the 381 warrants, but had the misfortune of posting on the timelines of those users, uploading photos of those users, or simply belonging to any one of the groups with which a named user was affiliated.[FN5] Facebook, which receives tens of thousands of requests from U.S. law enforcement officials each year and claims that it willingly complies with the vast majority of them (Facebook Government Requests Report, govtrequests.facebook.com/country/United%20States/2016-H1/ [accessed March 3, 2017]), repeatedly attempted to negotiate a narrower inquiry with the District Attorney's office. Rebuffed, Facebook moved the issuing court to quash the warrants. That court denied the motion, holding that Facebook lacked standing to quash the warrants and that the warrants were, in any case, supported by probable cause. The court ordered Facebook to comply with the warrants immediately. Facebook appealed that order and sought a stay pending appeal. After the Appellate Division denied Facebook's application for a stay, Facebook complied with the warrants. The Appellate Division dismissed Facebook's appeals on the ground that they were taken from non-appealable orders, but nonetheless appeared to agree with the summary denial of Facebook's motion for lack of standing. We granted Facebook leave to appeal, and now affirm on the grounds that the orders are nonappealable.[FN6] Because the denial of the motion to quash is appealable, and because Facebook clearly has standing to move to quash, I respectfully dissent and would remand the case to the Appellate Division to resolve the motion to quash on the merits. I. Appeal Pursuant to the Stored Communications Act Despite the significant search and seizure issues it presents, the most straightforward way to resolve this case turns not on the state or federal constitutions, but on a federal statute, squarely invoked by Facebook, that simultaneously authorizes the government's warrants and confers on service providers — such as Facebook — a right to move to quash those https://law.justia.com/cases/new-york/court-of-appeals/2017/16.html 18/44