Microsoft Allowed To Sue US Government Over Email Surveillance (bloomberg.com)

A judge has ruled that Microsoft is allowed to sue the U.S. government over a policy that prevents the tech company from telling its users when their emails are being intercepted. From a report on Bloomberg: The judge said Microsoft has at least made a plausible argument that federal law muzzles its right to speak about government investigations, while not ruling on the merits of the case. "The public debate has intensified as people increasingly store their information in the cloud and on devices with significant storage capacity," U.S. District Judge James Robart in Seattle said in Thursday's ruling. "Government surveillance aided by service providers creates unique considerations because of the vast amount of data service providers have about their customers."

Comments

Consistent in that the plaintiffs may have a case

[raymorris]

While I agree with you it's pretty clear Congress explicitly granted the President discretion to block entry by whatever criteria he deemed prudent, Robart is consistent between the two cases in holding that the plaintiff may have a non-frivilous case. That's the question before Robart in both cases - is it possible that the plaintiffs may be right, so their interests should be protected as the case is allowed to proceed.

Robart didn't rule that Trump's actions were illegal, he ruled that the question merits a full hearing. He's done the same in this case.

Re:The more important part not mentioned...

[mmell]

This court did not block Trump's (nee: Drumpf's) travel plan. It reaffirmed another court's correctness in doing so. Therefore, this court's ruling was not to block something, but rather to uphold something.

A subtle but nonetheless important distinction.