Based on an issue not raised by the parties, and avoiding constitutional questions, Supreme Court allows for some access to social media by criminal defendants

In Facebook Inc. v. Superior Court (Hunter), the Supreme Court today holds that federal law — the Stored Communications Act — does not bar Facebook and other social media service providers from complying with criminal defendants’ demand for “communications configured by a social media user to be public.”   But “restricted communications,” even those “sent to numerous recipients,” are another story, concludes the court’s unanimous opinion by Chief Justice Tani Cantil-Sakauye. All parties to the case had believed the legislation precluded all disclosure and the defendants argued that the assumed prohibition violated their federal constitutional rights under the Fifth and Sixth Amendment, an argument the superior court accepted.  Today’s more narrow statutory construction follows the court’s request for supplemental briefing on the issue and the parties’ agreement in those briefs about the…

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