The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on Monday that the White House may continue to make requests of technology companies to provide it with customer information. The court rejected a bid by Microsoft to block the federal government from accessing emails belonging to customers stored on its servers, which the company had argued violated Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure. In a 5-4 ruling, the justices sided with the government, which argued it had a valid search warrant for the emails. In its majority opinion, the court found that because Microsoft was based in the United States, the U.S. government was allowed to use the warrant powers granted to it under federal law. The ruling is seen as a win for the Trump administration, which has been trying to increase its power to access personal data held by tech companies. It could also embolden other governments to demand more access to user data.
