{"id":58608,"date":"2024-08-14T04:54:33","date_gmt":"2024-08-14T09:54:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=58608"},"modified":"2024-08-14T08:32:27","modified_gmt":"2024-08-14T13:32:27","slug":"mt-sca-grants-state-courts-authority-to-issue-sws-for-out-of-state-data","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=58608","title":{"rendered":"MT: SCA grants state courts authority to issue SWs for out-of-state data"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Because the internet uniformly crosses state lines, the Stored Communications Act, 18 U.S.C. \u00a7 2703(a), grants state courts additional jurisdiction over search warrants for information that is stored out of state. <a href=\"https:\/\/searchcourts.mt.gov\/PerceptiveJUDSupremeCourt\/APP\/connector\/2\/294\/url\/1A4B2C9C-CB2B-C7A8-8F2A-9129A7100000.pdf\">State v. LeVine<\/a>, 2024 MT 169 (Aug. 6, 2024):<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p>[*P11] There is no doubt that the District Court here is a court of general criminal jurisdiction generally authorized by law to issue search warrants. Mont. Const. art. VII, \u00a7 4; \u00a7\u00a7 46-2-201, 46-5-220, MCA. Levine argues that the language &#8220;within this state&#8221; used in \u00a7 46-5-220, MCA, limits the jurisdiction conferred by the SCA. But this argument ignores the plain language of the Constitution and the SCA, which allows laws of the United States to confer additional jurisdiction not provided for in the Constitution or Montana statute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>[*P12] Levine further argues that the requirement in 18 U.S.C. \u00a7 2703(a) to use state warrant procedures also limits the jurisdiction provided by the SCA because \u00a7 46-5-220, MCA, limits a district court&#8217;s general jurisdiction within Montana. But jurisdiction, which is a threshold question of authority, is not the same as procedure. Gottlob v. DesRosier, 2020 MT 210, \u00b6\u00b6 7-8, 401 Mont. 50, 470 P.3d 188; see also United States v. Berkos, 543 F.3d 392, 396-98 (7th Cir. 2008) (holding that 18 U.S.C. \u00a7 2703 provided its own jurisdictional authority and did not deprive a federal magistrate judge of jurisdiction although F. R. Civ. P. 41 generally limits its jurisdiction within the district because that part of Rule 41 was not procedural). The procedures that a district court must follow in issuing a search warrant authorized under the SCA are found, among other places, in \u00a7 46-5-221, MCA. Thus, federal law provides jurisdiction to Montana district courts to issue extraterritorial search warrants in specific circumstances. See 18 U.S.C. \u00a7 2703(a). Nevertheless, courts must still follow Montana warrant procedures, such as \u00a7 46-5-221, MCA, when issuing warrants under 18 U.S.C. \u00a7 2703.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Because the internet uniformly crosses state lines, the Stored Communications Act, 18 U.S.C. \u00a7 2703(a), grants state courts additional jurisdiction over search warrants for information that is stored out of state. State v. LeVine, 2024 MT 169 (Aug. 6, 2024):<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[110,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stored-communications-act","category-warrant-execution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58608","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=58608"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58608\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":58623,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58608\/revisions\/58623"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=58608"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=58608"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=58608"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}