nor the Fourth Amendment protected against potential
intrusions on individual privacy arising from illicit access to
“stored communications in remote computing operations and
large data banks that stored e-mails.”85
To state a claim under the Stored Communications
Act, a plaintiff must show that the defendant “(1)
intentionally accesses without authorization a facility through
which an electronic communication service is provided; or (2)
intentionally exceeds an authorization to access that facility;
and thereby obtains, alters, or prevents authorized access to a
wire or electronic communication while it is in electronic
storage in such system.”86
The District Court dismissed this claim on the basis of
the Act’s requirement that the illicit access be with respect to
“a facility through which an electronic communication
service is provided.”87 As pled in the complaint, the illicit
access at issue was to the plaintiffs’ personal web browsers.
85
Garcia v. City of Laredo, Tex., 702 F.3d 788, 791 (5th Cir.
2012); see also id. at 793; United States v. Councilman, 418
F.3d 67, 80-81 (1st Cir. 2005) (en banc); S. Rep. No. 99-541,
at 5 (1986); Orin S. Kerr, A User’s Guide to the Stored
Communications Act, and a Legislator’s Guide to Amending
It, 72 Geo. Wash. L. Rev. 1208, 1209-15 (2004).
86
18 U.S.C. § 2701(a); see also id. § 2707(a) (cause of
action).
87
In re: Google, 988 F. Supp. 2d at 445-47; 18 U.S.C. §
2701(a).
42
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